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
