BLOMINVEST‘s review of Lebanese banks

In June 2008 BLOMINVEST published a review of Lebanese banks as part of its Global Equity Research Report series. The following is a summary of that report. The Lebanese banking sector has always been at the core of the domestic economy with Lebanese banks playing a major role in the financial recovery of the country and carrying almost all of the latter’s financial intermediation activity. • Lebanon enjoys high banking penetration rates with a deposits/GDP ratio standing at 2.82x in 2007e compared to 1.15x for the emerging markets. This is mainly due to the continuous inflow of funds from Lebanese expatriates which is driven by two important factors: the support of the international community as proven by the latest Paris III conference, and the strong track record of no default. • The degree of fragmentation of the banking sector has been decreasing along with a fall in the number of