Lebanon is facing a new dawn, with its first functioning government in months promising an end to the political volatility that has mired its economy in recent years. Yet despite this instability, the country’s banks have been steadily growing and increasingly looking to other markets to expand.
With Lebanon's economy feeling the strains of political infighting and the two-year civil war in neighbouring Syria, its banks have been looking overseas in search of growth, establishing footholds in countries such as Turkey and Iraq, as well as seeking to consolidate their presence in Egypt and the Gulf.
After performing admirably in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the growth of Lebanon's banks dramatically slowed. The Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and north Africa last year further unsettled the country's financial sector, but, as leading figures from its banks explain, there is still a great deal of room for optimism.
The Lebanese banking sector witnessed slow growth in the first half of 2011, as political paralysis gripped the entire economy. The re-election of Riad Salameh as central bank governor helped boost activity in the latter half of the year, but with the country's political situation and the global economic climate still threatening to trouble Lebanese banks, how does he intend to stimulate growth throughout 2012?
Having endured an eventful recent past that includes a civil war, involvement in Middle East disputes and weathering the crisis in neighbouring Syria, Lebanon’s robust financial sector is growing at what the industry believes is a healthy pace. And with its banks highly liquid and well placed for the implementation of Basel III, good economic growth is forecast for 2012.
Blom Bank's chairman Saad Azhari, Banque Audi's group CFO Freddie Baz, Byblos Bank's executive director Sami Haddad and the Lebanese Banks Association's secretary general Makram Sader discuss privatisation, economic reform and other issues facing the new Lebanese government.
The collapse of its government earlier this year and subsequent political wrangling, together with less than optimistic trading figures, has left many fearing for the economic future of Lebanon. But the region has a long history of resilience in the face of adversity.
The conservative approach adopted by Lebanon's largely family-owned banking sector over the past decade has served it well in the post-crisis environment. Now its key players are increasingly eyeing an expansion into the frontier markets of eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The Lebanese economy's remarkable ability to withstand both political strife at home and financial crises overseas received universal acclaim. Achieving political consensus and reforming the country's archaic public finances will be the next challenge. Charlie Corbett reports from Beirut.