09 January 2008
BEIRUT: Lebanon outperforms regional peers in several indicators related to ease of access to financial services, a new study by the World Bank says. Within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Lebanon was found to have the second highest ratio of loan accounts per capita, with 9.3 percent of the population involved. It came in directly after Israel and was followed by Jordan with 8 percent, and the West Bank and Gaza with 5 percent.
The report, which was published by Bank Audi's weekly bulletin on Tuesday, said that when it comes to the loan income ratio, measured by the average size of loans per GDP per capita, Lebanon ranked first in MENA with a ratio of 9.1 percent, followed by Gaza with 8.3 percent, and Jordan with 8.2.
As for the ratio of deposit accounts per capita, Lebanon came in third with 38.3 percent.
Moreover, the survey presented another set of data under the category of barriers to payment services. These include the minimum amounts to open savings and checking accounts as a percentage of GDP per capita, cost to transfer funds internationally, and the amount of fees for using ATM cards.
The minimum amount to open a checking account in Lebanon as a percentage of GDP per capita was at 4.2 percent, slightly below the regional average of 4.8 percent and significantly lower than the global average of 11.1 percent. However, it costs way more in Lebanon to open a savings account, as the ratio of the minimum amount to open a savings account to GDP per capita reached 24 percent, above the respective regional and global averages of 5 percent and 7.8 percent.
When examining fees for consumer loans and mortgage loans as a percentage of GDP per capita, Lebanon scored 1.1 and 1.2 percent respectively, below regional averages of 3 and 3.6 percent. Those percentages are also below world averages of 3.1 percent and 3.7 percent. It takes around 9.3 days to process a mortgage loan in Lebanon and 1.6 days to carry a consumer loan, which is a short period compared to MENA and global averages of 23.0 and 12.7 days for mortgage loans, respectively, and 4 and 4.6 days for consumer loans. - The Daily Star
Copyright The Daily Star 2008.
