According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 31.88% to stand at $116.43B by June 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 74.08% of total assets; they dropped annually by 23.6% to settle at $86.25B in June 2023. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 98.83% of total reserves, and decreased by 22.53% YOY, to reach $85.24B in June 2023. Furthermore, Vault cash in Lebanese pound fell by 64.71% on a yearly basis to stand at $1,010M 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 6.94% of total assets, shrank significantly by 61.99%, to stand at $8.08B in June 2023. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (6.85% of total assets) dropped by 52.63% in June 2023 to stand at $7.97B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 30.20% since June 2022, to reach $2.79B by end of June 2023. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector increased by 12.93% YOY to stand at $4.37B by June 2023.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 64.26% of total liabilities; they decreased by 26.67% since June 2022 to reach $74.82B in the month of June 2023. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (94.4% of resident customers’ deposits) decreased by 7.25% YOY to reach $70.64B by June 2023, additionally deposits in LBP (5.6% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 83.81% YOY to stand at $4.19B by June 2023. Noting that Lebanon has become dollarized and cash based.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 18.46% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 9.85% and stood at $21.49B in June 2023. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 89.63% to reach $208.99M and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 2.49% to reach $21.28B over the same period. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.82% of total Liabilities and decreased by 25.86% YOY to reach $3.29B in June 2023. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 77.6% in June 2022 to 95.37% in June 2023.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by June 2023 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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