Boardroom talk

“Compliance officers have a lot of powers now. The joke between bankers is that they are running the banks.” Fadi Osseiran, general manager of BlomInvest “After a streak of eight years of positive double-digit growth in net profits, the environment is now more difficult for bank profitability. It is true that banks are still growing and standing very good in terms of liquidity, asset quality, capital adequacy and risk coverage but the level of profitability has been adversely affected by the operating environment.” Marwan Barakat, chief economist at Bank Audi “You can not take these deposits and say I want to reduce exposure to the Lebanese sovereign to zero percent and place all my money in international markets, you will lose. You cannot convince a depositor by saying,  ‘I’m an international bank, I don’t invest with the government, all my money is outside of Lebanon’. Will he accept to be