Photo: VCG

NICOSIA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Bank of Cyprus announced the appointment of a new CEO on Tuesday to succeed outgoing Irish banker John Patrick Hourican, who led the lender during its most difficult days after its 2013 resolution.

A Bank of Cyprus statement said Panicos Nikolaou will take on his duties on Sept. 1, after his appointment was approved by the European Central Bank, which is the controlling authority for all EU banks.

The announcement on his appointment came as outgoing CEO John Hourican reported a 97-million-euro (107.6 million U.S. dollar) net profit in the first half of this year, compared to a loss of 54 million euros in the first six months of 2018.

"I am extremely proud of the progress the Bank has made since late 2013 when I joined the executive team. The Bank is returning to strength, through a disciplined approach to balance sheet repair and disposal of non-core business," Hourican told a meeting of shareholders.

He said in his report that during the second quarter of the year, the Group generated a total income of 177 million euros and a positive operating result of 72 million euros.

Hourican said the bank reduced its non-performing loans by 300 million euros in the second quarter of 2019.

He also said that since the 2014 peak, Bank of Cyprus reduced non-performing loans by 71 percent to 4.3 billion euros.

Total non-performing loans for all banks in Cyprus stood at just over 10 billion euros at the end of March, down from the 2014 peak of 28.88 billion euros.