According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets grew by 12.12% year-to-date (y-t-d), to stand at $246.51B by November 2018.
In details, Currency and deposits with BDL (constituting 52.68% of total assets) recorded a 24.95% y-t-d uptick to settle at $129.85B by November 2018. In fact, since the beginning of the year, deposits with the central bank (BDL) witnessed continuous increases mainly due to the BDL offering banks products with attractive returns.
Meanwhile, Claims on resident customers (21.06% of total assets) declined by 2.85% y-t-d to stand at $51.93B by November 2018. In details, the claims in foreign currencies and LBP decreased by 2.32% and 3.94% y-t-d to settle at $35.22B and $16.70B, respectively. Claims on non-resident customers (2.77% of total only) rose by 12.51% to $6.83B. Worth mentioning, holdings of Eurobonds climbed by 13.89% to $16.15B by November while banks holdings of T-bills decreased by 7.91% y-t-d to $16.22B.
On the liabilities side, Resident customers’ deposits (which grasp 54.64% of total liabilities) witnessed an uptick of 1.10% y-t-d to $134.70B by November 2018. In details, deposits in LBP (constituting 35.13% of total resident deposits) retreated by 2.30% y-t-d to $47.32B while deposits in foreign currency (constituting 64.87% of total resident deposits) climbed by 3.03% y-t-d to $87.38B.
Given the attractive interest rates on Deposits, Non-resident customers’ deposits (15.16% of total liabilities), increased by 6.33% y-t-d and totaled $37.38B over the same period on the back of deposits in foreign currencies (constituting 88.18% of total non-resident deposits) recording a growth of 6.73% to $32.96B. As such, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits rose from 68.72% in December 2017 to 69.89% in November 2018.
In their turn, liabilities to non-resident financial sector witnessed a growth of 20.15% y-t-d, to $8.99B by November 2018
Commercial Banks’ Total assets by November (in $Billions)
Source: BDL
| in ($M) by November 2018 | |
| Commercial Banks’ holding of Eurobonds | 16,148 |
| Commercial Banks’ holding of T-bills | 16,223 |
| Total Deposits in BDL | 129,293 |