Commercial Banks Assets Hit $181.34B by September

Total consolidated assets of commercial banks reached $181.34B by September, a 3.21% growth since year start, and an expansion of 5.84% year-on-year (y-o-y).

In terms of assets, total reserves, with a weight of 38.41%, grew by 9.03% year-to-date (y-t-d) to $69.66B by the 9th month of the year. Loans to the private sector, which constituted 29.01% of total assets, edged up by 3.36% y-t-d to $52.61B by September. This was due to the respective 7.27% and 2.10% y-t-d increases in private sector loans denominated in local and foreign currencies to $13.34B and $39.27B. Accordingly, the dollarization of private sector loans went from 75.56% by the end of 2014 to 74.64% by September 2015. During the same period, claims on the public sector, constituting 20.60% of total assets, barely ticked up by 0.03% y-t-d to settle at $37.36B in September. As a matter of fact, Eurobonds increased by 3.44% to $16.87B. However, it was partially offset by the 2.57% decline in T-bills to $20.40B, from the beginning of the year. 

On the liabilities side, resident and non-resident private sector deposits (82.23% weight in total liabilities) improved by 3.25% since December 2014 to $149.11B by September this year. The dollarization rate of deposits slid from 65.71% in December 2014 to 64.62% during the same period, as private LBP deposits grew at a pace of 6.54% y-t-d to $52.76B, faster than the 1.53% y-t-d growth to $96.35B of foreign private sector deposits. Looking at just resident private sector deposits (65.28% weight in total liabilities), they also expanded by 3.73% y-t-d to $118.38B, during the same period.

 

Commercial Banks’ Assets By September

Commercial Banks Assets Hit $181.34B by September

Source: Banque du Liban

 

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