According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets declined by 1% on year over year (YoY) basis to stand at $102.67B in April 2025 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 77.41% of total assets; they dropped annually by 2.26% to settle at $79.48B in April 2025. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.90% of total reserves, and decreased by 2.24% YoY, to reach $79.4B in April 2025. Furthermore, vault cash in Lebanese pound declined by 23.15% on a yearly basis to stand at $80.09M by the same period.
Claims on resident customers, constituting 4.41% of total assets, shrank by 22.40% to stand at $4.53B in April 2025. Moreover, resident securities portfolio, representing 5.25% of total assets, increased by 13.48% in April 2025 to stand at $5.4B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded an increase of 3.74% since April 2024, to reach $2.3B (net of provisions) in April 2025. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector rose by 18.33% YoY to stand at $5.2B by April 2025.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 65.38% of total liabilities; they dropped by 2.62% since April 2024 to reach $67.13B by the month of April 2025. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (being 98.75% of resident customers’ deposits) declined by 3.03% YoY to reach $66.3B by April 2025, additionally deposits in LBP (1.25% of resident customers’ deposits) increased by 45.50% YoY to stand at $836.96M by April 2025. This reveals that a slightly higher proportion of deposits are now held in LBP, as the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits decreased from 99.31% in April 2024 to 98.99% in April 2025.
As for non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 20.64% of total liabilities, they recorded a rise of 1.12% and stood at $21.2B in April 2025. In details, the deposits in LBP rose by 1.27% to reach $31.61M and deposits in foreign currencies increased by 1.12% to reach $21.16B over the same period. In addition, non-resident financial sector liabilities representing 2.51% of total liabilities and decreased by 2.89% YoY to reach $2.6B in April 2025.
Lastly, the capital accounts stood at $4.3B, higher by 52.78% than April 2024, noting that only about 10% of those are in LBP.
Commercial Banks Total Assets and Resident Customer Deposits in April 2025 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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