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Middle EastJanuary 2 2006

Lebanon

Bank AudiRaymond Audi, Chairman
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1. What makes your country attractive to investors?

Opportunities lie in a strong private sector with important financial standing and large financial resources; a private sector that operates in an environment of total freedom and that is starting to benefit from changes in regional geopolitics, with the Arab investment interest shifting back to the region. The low capacity utilisation ratios within the context of a pent-up consumption and investment demand are apt to generate, over time, high real GDP growth rates with attractive returns to investors at large.

2. What are the economic prospects for your country over the next three to five years?

Lebanon was able to surpass, at a relatively affordable economic cost this year, a critical transitory period that reshaped its economic and political outlook. A quick political consensus on long-awaited adjustment reforms, in addition to a clear international engagement for foreign assistance, would reinforce the new mood of confidence and enable Lebanon to draw again on its large pool of untapped growth opportunities.

3. How do you foresee the financial sector in your country changing?

Following domestic expansion and successful business diversification over the past few years, Lebanese banks are embarking on regional expansion policies aimed at consolidating domestic and regional positioning. The requirements of cross-border expansion are dictated by the significant banking dimension relative to the country’s economic dimension, with total assets reaching nowadays more than 3.5 times Lebanon’s GDP.

4. What role will your bank play in your country’s future development?

Bank Audi was engaged over the past seven years in a huge restructuring, consisting of strengthening its human and financial resources, widening its branch network, developing its IT and electronic banking infrastructures, and diversifying its activities towards retail banking, private banking and capital market activities at large. All our consolidation and restructuring rationale rests on our engagement vis-à-vis our market and our economy to match the expected outgrowth of financial needs of the domestic market place on one hand, and increasingly to meet the regional expansion requirements of our domestic banking industry on the other hand.

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Read more about:  Middle East , Lebanon