According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets declined by 7.82% on year over year (YoY) basis to stand at $103.88B by September 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 78.32% of total assets; they dropped annually by 3.71% to settle at $81.36B in September 2024. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.91% of total reserves, and decreased by 3.01% YoY, to reach $81.29B in September 2024. Furthermore, vault cash in Lebanese pound declined by 89.48% on a yearly basis to stand at $72.11M 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 4.85% of total assets, shrank considerably by 32.60%, to stand at $5.04B in September 2024. Moreover, resident securities portfolio, representing 5.2% of total assets, dropped by 11.87% in September 2024 to stand at $5.4B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 14.19% since September 2023, to reach $2.2B (net of provisions) by end of September 2024. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector shrank by 3.07% YoY to stand at $4.29B by September 2024.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 65.15% of total liabilities; they dropped by 7.26% since September 2023 to reach $67.67B by the month of September 2024. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (being 99.08% of resident customers’ deposits) declined by 3.95% YoY to reach $67.05B by September 2024, additionally deposits in LBP (0.92% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 80.39% YoY to stand at $619.4M by September 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 96.34% in September 2023 to 99.25% in September 2024.
As for non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 20.29% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 0.63% and stood at $21.07B in September 2024. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 83.95% to reach $30.91M and deposits in foreign currencies increased by 0.14% to reach $21.04B over the same period. In addition, non-resident financial sector liabilities held 2.47% of total liabilities and decreased by 17.55% YoY to reach $2.56B in September 2024.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by September 2024 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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