According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 32.61% to stand at $113.72B by August 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 74.39% of total assets; they dropped annually by 24.16% to settle at $84.59B in August 2023. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.16% of total reserves, and decreased by 22.51% YOY, to reach $83.88B in August 2023. Furthermore, Vault cash in Lebanese pound fell by 78.32% on a yearly basis to stand at $713.23M 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 6.78% of total assets, shrank significantly by 61.95%, to stand at $7.7B in August 2023. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (6.98% of total assets) dropped by 52.09% in August 2023 to stand at $7.94B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 31.93% since August 2022, to reach $2.66B by end of August 2023. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector increased by 10.26% YOY to stand at $4.4B by August 2023.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 64.34% of total liabilities; they decreased by 26.9% since August 2022 to reach $73.17B by the month of August 2023. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (95.88% of resident customers’ deposits) decreased by 7.11% YOY to reach $70.16B by August 2023, additionally deposits in LBP (4.12% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 87.73% YOY to stand at $3.01B by August 2023. Noting that Lebanon has become dollarized and cash based.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 18.77% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 9.62% and stood at $21.35B in August 2023. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 90.41% to reach $192.16M and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 2.13% to reach $21.16B over the same period. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.73% of total Liabilities and decreased by 29.12% YOY to reach $3.11B in August 2023. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 78.24% in August 2022 to 96.44% in August 2023.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by August 2023 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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