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Commercial bank assets reach $122 billion at end-June 2010

09 August 2010

BEIRUT: The consolidated balance sheet of commercial banks operating in Lebanon shows that total assets reached $121.7 billion at end-June 2010, an increase of 5.6 percent from end-2009 and up 17.4 percent from end-June 2009. The findings were published by Byblos Bank’s Lebanon This Week.

Private sector deposits totaled $100.1 billion, up 4.5 percent from end-2009 and up 16.7 percent from end-June 2009.

Deposits in Lebanese pounds reached $37.5 billion, increasing by 10.2 percent from end-2009 and by 32.5 percent year-on-year, while deposits in foreign currencies reached $62.6 billion, rising by 1.4 percent from the end of last year and by 9 percent from end-June 2009.

Non-resident foreign currency deposits reached $14.3 billion at end-June 2010, increasing by 0.7 percent from end- 2009 and increasing by 16.7 percent year-on-year.

Total private sector deposits rose by $225 million in January, $1.07 billion in February, $1.07 billion in March, $997 million in April, $82 million in May and $908 million in June 2010.

In parallel, deposits of non-resident banks reached $5.1 billion, up 10 percent from end-2009 and up 10.5 percent from end-June 2009.

The dollarization rate of deposits reached 62.5 percent at end-June 2010, down from 64.5 percent at end-2009 and from 67 percent a year earlier. Further, the average deposit rate in Lebanese pounds reached 5.83 percent com- pared to 6.96 percent a year earlier, while the same rate in US dollars was 2.75 percent, down from 3.18 percent in June 2009.

Loans to the private sector amounted to $31.7 billion, up 11.8 percent from end-2009 and up 21.7 percent year-on-year.

The dollarization rate in private-sector lending reached 81.9 percent compared to 84 percent at end-2009 and 85.4 percent a year earlier.

The average lending rate in Lebanese pounds was 8.37 percent in June 2010 compared to 9.76 percent a year earlier, while the same average in US dollars was 7.03 percent compared to 7.24 percent in June last year.

Claims on the public sector stood at $29.1 billion, up 15.2 percent year-on-year and up 0.2 percent from end-2009, and accounted for 47.9 percent of the banking sector’s total loans.

The ratio of private sector loans to deposits in foreign currencies stood at 41.5 percent, well below the Central Bank’s limit of 70 percent, and above the ratio of 38.7 percent a year earlier. In parallel, the same ratio in Lebanese pounds was 15.3 percent, up from 13.5 percent a year earlier.

The ratio of total private-sector loans to deposits stood at 31.7 percent, compared to 30.4 percent a year earlier.

The banks’ aggregate capital base stood at $8.95 billion, up 12.6 percent from end-2009 and up 19.2 percent from $7.51 billion in June 2009.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Lebanon set the end of 2010 as the deadline for investment banks and specialized medium- and long-term banks to implement its directive about limiting their lending to the public sector and expanding private-sector lending, especially to productive sectors.

It indicated that this would be the final deadline for the institutions and that it would review their licenses by the end of the period.

Also, it stressed the need to segregate the work of investment banks from commercial banks, as investment banks needed to focus on their core tasks of investment banking and private banking operations.

It added that there was a need for investment banks to help companies increase their capitalization, underwrite and market public and private equity and debt issues, support financial markets, and establish a secondary market. – The Daily Star

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