‘2014 will be the toughest yet for banks’

François Bassil is the chairman and general manager of Byblos Bank and head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon. Bassil sits down with Executive to talk about the bank’s performance in dire economic times and the bank’s strategy for next year. How do you gauge the performance of the bank in 2013? In 2013, it wasn’t bad. It was an acceptable year up until now, at least up until last month [October]. We made a [positive step with] the bank’s balance sheet up 8 percent, and deposits increased 7 percent the first nine months of the year. There was a small decrease of profits of 6 percent. We took a lot of provisions because of the situation in Syria. In general, all Lebanese banks worked hard this year but their profits were stagnant. And credits to the private sector increased by 5 percent. Next year will be difficult because