A strong performance from brokerage revenues helped LOM Financial Ltd to a 8.9 per cent jump in group profit for the first half of the year.The company’s profit was $1,028,685, or 19 cents per share, compared to $944,235, or 16 cents per share, for the same six months last year.The group reported an increase in costs from referral and commission payments during the first six months of the year, in addition to higher salary costs due to employees hired during the past year. Overall revenues rose 14.9 per cent, year-on-year, while costs were up 15.9 per cent.Scott Lines, chief executive officer of LOM, in a letter to shareholder said the Covid-19 pandemic had caused steep declines in global markets, which had been followed by a rally led mainly by the tech sector as the digitalisation of business and consumer activity ramped up to meet demand from stay at home workers and shoppers. He said: “Effectively, the forced move to self-isolation has accelerated the substitution of physical activity by digital, from a three-year process to a three-week one.” Mr Lines added: “The market expectations in April of a steep economic decline followed by an equally sharp recovery (the V shaped recession) have been disappointed and now have been supplanted by a more modest expectation of a U-shaped recovery with a longer period of subdued economic activity.”During the lockdown, LOM’s employees worked remotely. The company is now returning to “a more normal office interaction”.At the end of June, LOM had $1.1 billion of assets under administration, compared to $1.13 billion at the end of 2019.The group paid down some of the mortgage on its building in Nassau, Bahamas. The mortgage stood at $282,500 at the end of June.The board of LOM has given approval for the continued buy back of shares for cancellation, for a total not to exceed 500,000 shares. Over the first half of the year, the company purchased for cancellation 81,000 shares at an average price of $2.75. At the end of June, LOM’s book value was $3.91 per share.