According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets declined by 10.84% on year over year (YoY) basis to stand at $102.76B by December 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 77.52% of total assets; they dropped annually by 5.30% to settle at $79.66B in December 2024. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.9% of total reserves, and decreased by 4.84% % YoY, to reach $79.58B in December 2024. Furthermore, vault cash in Lebanese pound declined by 83.71% on a yearly basis to stand at $80.22M 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 4.53% of total assets, shrank considerably by 34.92% to stand at $4.66B in December 2024. Moreover, resident securities portfolio, representing 6.08% of total assets, increased by 5.78% in December 2024 to stand at $6.25B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded an increase of 0.91% since December 2023, to reach $2.21B (net of provisions) by end of December 2024. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector rose by 5.22% YoY to stand at $4.69B by December 2024.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 65.23% of total liabilities; they dropped by 7.68% since December 2023 to reach $67.03B by the month of December 2024. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (being 98.96% of resident customers’ deposits) declined by 4.56% YoY to reach $66.34B by December 2024, additionally deposits in LBP (1.04% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 77.61% YoY to stand at $694.4M by December 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 December 2023 to 99.14% in December 2024.
As for non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 20.35% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 1.06% and stood at $20.91B in December 2024. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 84.03% to reach $30.36M and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 0.31% to reach $20.88B over the same period. In addition, non-resident financial sector liabilities remained at 2.44% of total liabilities and decreased by 13.12% YoY to reach $2.51B in December 2024.
Commercial Banks Total Assets and Resident Customer Deposits in 2024 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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