According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets declined annually by 10.39% to stand at $103.7B by April 2024 amid BDL’s adoption of a new exchange rate of LBP 89,500 per USD effective 31/01/2024.
On the assets side, currency and deposits with Central Bank represented a high figure of 78.42% of total assets; they dropped annually by 4.99% to settle at $81.32B in April 2024. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.87% of total reserves, and decreased by 4.14% YOY, to reach $81.22B in April 2024. Furthermore, vault cash in Lebanese pound declined by 87.97% on a yearly basis to stand at $104.21M by the same period. The drop is attributed to the calculation based on the new official exchange rate of LBP 89,500 per USD.
Claims on resident customers, constituting 5.63% of total assets, shrank considerably by 30.86%, to stand at $5.83B in April 2024. Moreover, resident securities portfolio, representing 4.58% of total assets, dropped by 33.5% in April 2024 to stand at $4.75B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 21.22% since April 2023, to reach $2.21B (net of provisions) by end of April 2024. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector grew by 4.05% YOY to stand at $4.38B by April 2024.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 66.47% of total liabilities; they dropped by 8.09% since April 2023 to reach $68.94B by the month of April 2024. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (being 99.17% of resident customers’ deposits) declined by 4.56% YOY to reach $68.36B by April 2024, additionally deposits in LBP (0.83% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 82.98% YOY to stand at $575M by April 2024 especially after applying the new official exchange rate of 89,500. This reveals that Lebanon has become highly dollarized and cash based, as the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 96.12% in April 2023 to 99.31% in April 2024.
As for non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 20.21% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 2.69% and stood at $20.95B in April 2024. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 88.45% to reach $31.21M (after applying the new official exchange rate of 89,500) and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 1.6% to reach $20.92B over the same period. In addition, non-resident financial sector liabilities held 2.56% of total liabilities and decreased by 19.17% YOY to reach $2.66B in April 2024.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by April 2024 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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