Lebanon: In search of a new role

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Lebanon: In search of a new role

Lebanese banks have lived well by investing in high-yielding treasury bonds. But with government debt issuance and interest rates set to fall, banks are looking for new ways to make money. Charles Olivier reports

Biggest Lebanese banks by shareholders' equity ($m)
1997 1996
Banque de la Méditerranée 316 248
Byblos Bank 243 88
Banque Audi 220 112
Banque du Liban et d'Outre-Mer 191 154
Banque Libano-Française 132 91
Fransabank 122 83
Banque Libanaise pour le Commerce 83 74
Crédit Libanais 74 61
Société Générale Libano-Européenne de Banque 70 54
Bank of Beirut and the Arab Countries 57 44
Beirut Riyad Bank 46 24
Source: based on Central Bank figures

Since the end of the country's civil war in 1990, Lebanon's banks have staged a remarkable recovery. Assets have quadrupled from $7 billion to more than $36 billion (nearly twice the country's gross domestic product) thanks to money coming in from the Lebanese diaspora. Meanwhile, tight supervision by the Central Bank and a cautious approach to lending have strengthened balance sheets and boosted average capital-adequacy ratios to 20%.

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