Lebanese Commercial Banks’ Total Assets Added 5.34% y-t-d to $262.20B by October 2019

According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets grew by 5.34% year-to-date (y-t-d), to stand at $262.80B by October 2019.

In details, Resident customers’ deposits (which grasp 49.98% of total liabilities) decreased by 3.03% y-t-d to $131.34B by October 2019, with deposits in LBP declining by 12.71% y-t-d to $40.57B while deposits in foreign currencies recorded an uptick of 2.02% y-t-d to 90.77B. In fact, part of the LBP deposits were converted to USD, which explains the 2.02% uptick in deposits dominated in foreign currencies. Meanwhile, the remaining LBP deposits were withdrawn out of the banking system. As for the Non-resident customers’ deposits (13.52% of total liabilities), they retreated by 5.81% y-t-d and totaled $35.53B over the same period on the back of a drop in deposits in LBP and in foreign currencies by 15.90% and 4.51% to $3.62B and $31.90B, respectively. Worth mentioning that the Non-resident customers’ deposits dropped monthly by 2.98% ($1B) following the capital outflows that occurred during October. As such, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 70.62% in December 2018 to 73.43% in October 2019. In their turn, resident financial sector liabilities witnessed an important increase by 34.80% y-t-d to $1.48B.

On the assets side, Reserves (constituting 58.99% of total assets) recorded a 15.56% y-t-d increase to settle at $155B by October 2019. The increase in reserves came on the back of a 18.49% y-t-d climb in deposits with the central bank (BDL). Meanwhile, the environment of high interest rates weighted on Claims on resident customers (17.96% of total assets) which retreated by 8.86% y-t-d, to stand at $47.21B by October 2019. As for Claims on the government, they declined by 6.66% since the beginning of the year to stand at $32.84B. In details, the subscription to T-bills in LBP and to Eurobonds recorded a decline by 4.97% and 7.95% to $16.51B and $14.76B, respectively by October 2019.

Total Assets of Commercial Banks by October (in $B)

Lebanese Commercial Banks’ Total Assets Added 5.34% y-t-d to $262.20B by October 2019

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