According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 32.81% to stand at $115.64B by April 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 74.02% of total assets; they dropped annually by 24.32% to settle at $85.59B in April 2023. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 98.99% of total reserves, and decreased by 23.29% YOY, to reach $84.73B in April 2023. Furthermore, Vault cash in Lebanese pound fell by 67.27% on a yearly basis to stand at $866.53M 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 7.3% of total assets, shrank significantly by 62.28%, to stand at $8.44B in April 2023. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (6.17% of total assets) dropped by 57.82% in April 2023 to stand at $7.14B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 37.81% since April 2022, to reach $2.81B by end of April 2023. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector increased by 3.71% YOY to stand at $4.2B by April 2023.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 64.86% of total liabilities; they decreased by 27.1% since April 2022 to reach $75.01B in the month of April 2023. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (95.49% of resident customers’ deposits) decreased by 7.28% YOY to reach $71.63B by April 2023, additionally deposits in LBP (4.51% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 86.82% YOY to stand at $3.38B by April 2023. Noting that Lebanon has become dollarized and cash based.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 18.62% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 10.11% and stood at $21.53B in April 2023. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 86.67% to reach $270.16M and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 3.04% to reach $21.26B over the same period. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.84% of total Liabilities and decreased by 25.78% YOY to reach $3.29B in April 2023. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 77.96% in April 2022 to 96.12% in April 2023.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by April 2023 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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