Lending an ear

Makram Sader Secretary general, The Association of Banks in Lebanon We have good trends in terms of increases in our deposit base, in terms of increases in our credit portfolio, in terms of liquidity ratios and even in terms of profits. We hope these trends will continue in 2009. My opinion is that they will continue. It seems logical that these positive trends will continue during 2010 because with the current political stability in the country, due to the newly established government, we hope the level of activity will increase, and maybe we will even see the initiating of some big public projects. Any new activity, either public or private, usually translates into increased activity within the banking industry. I hope that we will have a higher volume of credit. It will be very good for us to continue this year’s poitive trend of a yearly 20 percent increase in