According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 33.8% to stand at $115B by February 2023 amid BDL’s adoption of a new exchange rate of LBP 15,000 per USD.
On the assets side, currency and deposits with Central Bank represented a high figure of 73.86% of total assets; they dropped annually by 24.78% to settle at $84.94B in February 2023. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.44% of total reserves, and decreased by 23.03% YOY, to reach $84.46B in February 2023. Furthermore, Vault cash in Lebanese pound fell by 84.98% on a yearly basis to stand at $476.88M by the same period. The drop is attributed to the calculation based on the new official exchange rate of LBP 15000 per USD.
Claims on resident customers, constituting 8.03% of total assets, shrank significantly by 61.23%, to stand at $9.23B in February 2023. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (5.79% of total assets) dropped by 60.68% in February 2023 to stand at $6.66B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 35.66% since February 2022, to reach $2.83B by end of February 2023. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector dropped by 8.99% YOY to stand at $4.13B by February 2023.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 65.22% of total liabilities; they decreased by 27.15% since February 2022 to reach $75B in the month of February 2023. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (96.46% of resident customers’ deposits) decreased by 8% YOY to reach $72.35B by February 2023, additionally deposits in LBP (3.54% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 89.08% YOY to stand at $2.65B by February 2023. Noting that Lebanon has become dollarized and cash based.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 18.67% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 11.37% and stood at $21.47B in February 2023. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 89.81% to reach $202M and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 4.37% to reach $21.26B over the same period. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 79.05% in February 2022 to 96.92% in February 2023. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.88% of total Liabilities and decreased by 30.99% YOY to reach $3.32B in February 2023.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by February 2023 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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