According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 7.0% to stand at $167.01B by September 2022.
On the assets side, currency and deposits with Central Bank represented a high figure of 66.59% of total assets; they recorded a yearly uptick of 0.38% to settle at $111.21B in September 2022. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 97.38% of total reserves, and slightly decreased by 0.20% YOY, to reach $108.30B in September 2022. Meanwhile, Vault cash in Lebanese pound jumped by 28.18% on a yearly basis to stand at $2.91B 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 11.81% of total assets, shrank significantly by 24.67%, to stand at $19.72B in September 2022. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (9.36% of total assets) dropped by 24.03% in September 2022 to stand at $15.62B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 50.95% since September 2021, to reach $3.73B in September 2022.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 59.82% of total liabilities; they decreased by 4.79% since September 2021 to reach $99.91B in September 2022. In more details, the Lebanese pounds’ deposits registered a 5.74% increase on an annual basis to stand at $25.02B while the deposits in foreign currencies decreased by 7.85% yearly to reach $74.88B by the end of september 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.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 14.01% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 9.80% and stood at $23.39B in September 2022. In details, the deposits in LBP retracted by 2.69% to reach $2B while deposits in foreign currencies declined significantly by 10.41% to reach $21.39B over the same period. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits decreased from 80.05% in September 2021 to 77.66% in September 2022. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.63% of total Liabilities and decreased by 11.02% YOY to reach $4.39B in September 2022.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by September ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST