Bank Audi on Friday posted a 19 percent rise in net profit for 2008 and said it aimed to increase net earnings and assets in 2009 despite a difficult regional economic outlook.

The bank posted net profit of $238.5 million. Its customer deposits rose nearly 21 percent to $17.3 billion and total assets climbed 18 percent to $20.4 billion, making it Lebanon's largest bank on both counts.

"Obviously '09 is going to be a difficult year. But a difficult year for a Lebanese bank doesn't mean a decrease in profits, or losses," Bank Audi's Group Chief Financial Officer and Strategy Director Freddie Baz told Reuters.

"Probably the pace of growth in earnings will go down a little bit, but obviously our target is to show increases in net earnings," he said.

Lebanon's banks have largely been insulated from the global financial crisis by regulations that stopped investments in the risky assets that have afflicted banks elsewhere.

Customer deposits grew at a record pace in Lebanon in late 2008 as Lebanese repatriated funds to banks at home, perceiving them as protected from the crisis.

Bank Audi's customer deposit base grew by $3 billion in 2008, Baz said, exceeding an average of $2 billion to $2.5 billion over the past five years.

Baz said he was not worried about "keeping the same pace of recurrent growth in our deposit base".

Shares in the bank changed hands on Friday at $46.90, unchanged from Thursday's close. Volumes were low.

http://www.reuters.com/  By Tom Perry