According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 6.40% to stand at $168.74B by August 2022.
On the assets side, currency and deposits with Central Bank represented a high figure of 66.10% of total assets; they recorded a yearly uptick of 1.18% to settle at $111.54B in August 2022. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 97.05% of total reserves, and slightly decreased by 0.02% YOY, to reach $108.24B in August 2022. Meanwhile, Vault cash in Lebanese pound jumped by 66.92% on a yearly basis to stand at $3.29B by the same period. The increase could be attributed to the significant volumes of cash that banks are receiving from Sayrafa transactions.
Meanwhile, Claims on resident customers, constituting 12% of total assets, shrank significantly by 24.72%, to stand at $20.25B in August 2022. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (9.82% of total assets) dropped by 20.43% in August 2022 to stand at $16.57B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 49.53% since August 2021, to reach $3.90B in August 2022.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 59.32% of total liabilities; they decreased by 4.97% since August 2021 to reach $100.10B in August 2022. In more details, the Lebanese pounds’ deposits registered a 2.66% increase on an annual basis to stand at $24.52B while the deposits in foreign currencies decreased by 4.97% yearly to reach $75.52B by the end of August 2022. Customers seem to deposit more Lebanese pound into their accounts while others are conducting limited withdrawals in foreign currencies; in addition, most of transactions today are only paid in fresh dollars. For example, the majority of Real Estate purchases and constructions are fully paid in fresh cash.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 14% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 3.74% and stood at $23.62B in August 2022. In details, the deposits in LBP retracted by 1.65% to reach $2B while deposits in foreign currencies declined significantly by 3.93% to reach $21.62B over the same period. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits decreased from 80.11% in August 2021 to 76.58% in August 2022. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.60% of total Liabilities and decreased by 16.56% YOY to reach $4.38B in August 2022.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by August ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST