According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets declined by 2.10% on year over year (YoY) basis to stand at $102.4B by August 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 77.12% of total assets; they dropped annually by 3.38% to settle at $78.94B in August 2025. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.90% of total reserves, and decreased by 3.37% YoY, to reach $78.9B in August 2025. Furthermore, vault cash in Lebanese pound declined by 10.40% on a yearly basis to stand at $76.27M by the same period.
Claims on resident customers, constituting 4.29% of total assets, shrank by 20.09% to stand at $4.4B in August 2025. Moreover, resident securities portfolio, representing 4.90% of total assets, decreased by 2.65% in August 2025 to stand at $5.01B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decrease of 1.99% since August 2024, to reach $2.2B (net of provisions) in August 2025. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector rose by 19.68% YoY to stand at $5.14B by August 2025.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 64.77% of total liabilities; they dropped by 3.14% since August 2024 to reach $66.3B by the month of August 2025. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (being 98.77% of resident customers’ deposits) declined by 3.47% YoY to reach $65.5B by August 2025, additionally deposits in LBP (1.23% of resident customers’ deposits) increased by 32.84% YoY to stand at $818.64M by August 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 99.25% in August 2024 to 98.98% in August 2025.
As for non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 20.89% of total liabilities, they recorded a rise of 1.06% and stood at $21.9B in August 2025. In details, the deposits in LBP rose by 43.71% to reach $45.16M and deposits in foreign currencies increased by 0.99% to reach $21.33B over the same period. In addition, non-resident financial sector liabilities representing 2.34% of total liabilities and decreased by 9.03% YoY to reach $2.4B in August 2025.
Lastly, the capital accounts stood at $4.51B, higher by 20.71% than August 2024, noting that only about 10% of those are in LBP.
Commercial Banks Total Assets and Resident Customer Deposits in August 2025 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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