Banks vie for the deposit pie

If there is one figure that summarizes the significance of the banking sector in Lebanon, it is that total assets stood at $148 billion as of the end of September 2012. That’s a 5 percent increase so far for the year, despite Lebanon’s dreary economy, and means that Lebanon’s 71 commercial banks control assets worth 3.5 times the country’s gross domestic product. What is less cheerful for bankers this year is the declining growth rate in assets and deposits, with profitability also expected to be down by the end of the year. Scenarios range from Byblos Bank chairman François Bassil expecting profits to drop 25 percent, to Blom Bank chairman Saad Azhari’s more optimistic scenario for flat profits this year. For the first nine months of the year, alpha banks — the 12 largest with deposits in excess of $2 billion — reported total net profits of $1.2 billion, a