According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 3.36% to stand at $169.05B by December 2022. Note that valuation in USD is still at the old official rate of 1507.5 LBP/USD.
On the assets side, currency and deposits with Central Bank represented a high figure of 64.95% of total assets; they dropped annually by 1.76% to settle at $109.80B in December 2022. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 96.04% of total reserves, and slightly decreased by 3.22% YOY, to reach $105.46B in December 2022. Meanwhile, Vault cash in Lebanese pound jumped by 55.11% on a yearly basis to stand at $4.34B by the same period. The increase is attributed to the volumes of cash that banks are receiving from Sayrafa transactions.
Claims on resident customers, constituting 10.55% of total assets, shrank significantly by 27.74%, to stand at $17.83B in December 2022. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (8.37% of total assets) dropped by 24.76% in December 2022 to stand at $14.15B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 38.61% since December 2021, to reach $2.93B by the end of 2022.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 59.25% of total liabilities; they decreased by 3.15% since December 2021 to reach $100.15B in December 2022. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (73.04% of resident customers’ deposits) decreased by 7.93% YOY to reach $73.15B by December 2022, while deposits in LBP (26.96% of resident customers’ deposits) increased by 12.80% YOY to stand at $27B by December 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 13.84% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 4.66% and stood at $23.39B in December 2022. In details, the deposits in LBP retracted by 1.11% to reach $2.01B while deposits in foreign currencies declined by 4.99% to reach $21.38B over the same period. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits decreased from 79.42% in December 2021 to 76.06% in December 2022. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.55% of total Liabilities and decreased by 11.47% YOY to reach $4.31B in December 2022.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by December 2022 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST