According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 33.32% to stand at $115.15B by March 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 74.2% of total assets; they dropped annually by 24.2% to settle at $85.44B in March 2023. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.14% of total reserves, and decreased by 23.01% YOY, to reach $84.7B in March 2023. Furthermore, Vault cash in Lebanese pound fell by 72.72% on a yearly basis to stand at $738.6M 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 7.51% of total assets, shrank significantly by 62.49%, to stand at $8.65B in March 2023. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (6.12% of total assets) dropped by 58.69% in March 2023 to stand at $7.05B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 37.98% since March 2022, to reach $2.82B by end of March 2023. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector increased by 1.04% YOY to stand at $4.13B by March 2023.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 65.11% of total liabilities; they decreased by 26.95% since March 2022 to reach $74.97B in the month of March 2023. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (95.8% of resident customers’ deposits) decreased by 7.82% YOY to reach $71.82B by March 2023, additionally deposits in LBP (4.2% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 87.27% YOY to stand at $3.15B by March 2023. Noting that Lebanon has become dollarized and cash based.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 18.65% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 10.84% and stood at $21.48B in March 2023. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 89.45% to reach $210.63M and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 3.74% to reach $21.27B over the same period. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.81% of total Liabilities and decreased by 26.77% YOY to reach $3.24B in March 2023. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 78.68% in March 2022 to 96.42% in March 2023.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by March 2023 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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