According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets declined annually by 8.06% to stand at $104.56B by August 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 78.14% of total assets; they dropped annually by 3.42% to settle at $81.71B in August 2024. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.9% of total reserves, and decreased by 2.7% YOY, to reach $81.62B in August 2024. Furthermore, vault cash in Lebanese pound declined by 88.06% on a yearly basis to stand at $85.13M 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 5.26% of total assets, shrank considerably by 28.63%, to stand at $5.5B in August 2024. Moreover, resident securities portfolio, representing 4.92% of total assets, dropped by 35.18% in August 2024 to stand at $5.15B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 16.04% since August 2023, to reach $2.23B (net of provisions) by end of August 2024. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector shrank by 2.42% YOY to stand at $4.29B by August 2024.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 65.46% of total liabilities; they dropped by 6.46% since August 2023 to reach $68.45B by the month of August 2024. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (being 99.1% of resident customers’ deposits) declined by 3.32% YOY to reach $67.83B by August 2024, additionally deposits in LBP (0.9% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 79.55% YOY to stand at $616.25M by August 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 96.44% in August 2023 to 99.25% in August 2024.
As for non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 20.23% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 0.91% and stood at $21.16B in August 2024. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 83.64% to reach $ 31.43M and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 0.16% to reach $21.13B over the same period. In addition, non-resident financial sector liabilities held 2.52% of total liabilities and decreased by 15.19% YOY to reach $2.64B in August 2024.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by August 2024 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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