According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 7.97% to stand at $164.64B by October 2022.
On the assets side, currency and deposits with Central Bank represented a high figure of 66.89% of total assets; they fell YOY by 1.07% to settle at $110.13B in October 2022. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 96.92% of total reserves, and slightly decreased by 1.89% YOY, to reach $106.74B in October 2022. Meanwhile, Vault cash in Lebanese pound jumped by 34.77% on a yearly basis to stand at $3.39B by the same period. The increase could be attributed to the significant volumes of cash that banks are receiving from Sayrafa transactions.
Claims on resident customers, constituting 11.85% of total assets, shrank significantly by 23.38%, to stand at $19.51B in October 2022. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (9.05% of total assets) dropped by 26.63% in October 2022 to stand at $14.89B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 48.09% since October 2021, to reach $3.55B in October 2022.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 60.26% of total liabilities; they decreased by 4.81% since October 2021 to reach $99.21B in October 2022. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (74.93% of resident customers’ deposits) decreased by 7.98% YOY to reach $74.34B by October 2022, while deposits in LBP (25.07% of resident customers’ deposits) increased by 6.1% YOY to stand at $24.87B by October 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 14.19% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 9.53% and stood at $23.36B in October 2022. In details, the deposits in LBP retracted by 3.41% to reach $1.99B while deposits in foreign currencies declined significantly by 10.06% to reach $21.36B over the same period. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits decreased from 80.09% in October 2021 to 77.57% in October 2022. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.61% of total Liabilities and decreased by 14.39% YOY to reach $4.3B in October 2022.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by October 2022 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST