Despite operating in an environment fraught with difficulties, the top Lebanese banks have been consistently building up their balance sheets for more than 10 years. Joy Macknight reports.

Political and economic issues have long dogged Lebanon, but recent years have seen an escalation domestically and across the Middle East region, not least with the ongoing Syrian conflict on its doorstep. While this has limited the Levant country’s economic growth, its banks have progressively expanded their assets and strengthened their positions.

Over the past decade, up to year-end 2017, Lebanon’s biggest bank by total assets, Bank Audi, increased its balance sheet by an impressive 114%. Likewise, Blom Bank’s assets have risen by almost 82% and Byblos Bank by just over 100%.

But the biggest jump was made by the country’s fifth largest bank, Société Générale de Banque Liban, which saw a remarkable 543% growth in assets over 10 years.

Only two of the top five banks’ return on assets (ROA), which shows how profitable a bank’s assets are in generating revenue, were above the region average of 1.52% in 2017 – Bank Audi and Blom Bank – with the former progressively improving its ROA over the past five years.

All data sourced from www.thebankerdatabase.com

data trends 271118

PLEASE ENTER YOUR DETAILS TO WATCH THIS VIDEO

All fields are mandatory

The Banker is a service from the Financial Times. The Financial Times Ltd takes your privacy seriously.

Choose how you want us to contact you.

Invites and Offers from The Banker

Receive exclusive personalised event invitations, carefully curated offers and promotions from The Banker



For more information about how we use your data, please refer to our privacy and cookie policies.

Terms and conditions

Join our community

The Banker on Twitter