Banking

The alpha bankers had a good year. Profits for 2014 showed surprising strength by growing 9.13 percent year on year to LBP 2.8 trillion ($1.9 billion) for the 14 banks …

For many years Lebanon’s national tree, Cedrus libani, has been designated a beleaguered species whose numbers are lower than they should be. No such danger has ever faced our country’s …

Gray, when not taken as the zone between black and white but as the color of unobtrusiveness and understatement — as well as secretive sway — has long been employed …

When it comes to the question of what Lebanese commercial banks should and could do differently in 2015, the short answer is ‘almost everything’. However, as far as what one …

As 2014 was winding its way from present to past, the Lebanese market’s top banking buzzword was resilience. In interviews throughout the year as well as in year end conversations …

For an extended interview with Janwillem Acket, read this.   To say that playing the global economy makes for a tricky game may be the world’s biggest understatement in the …

This article is part of an Executive special report on wealth management and private banking. Read more stories as they’re published here, or pick up September’s issue at newsstands in …

Each year the observers and analysts of Lebanon’s banking performance eagerly await the publication of Bilanbanques, a wholly numbers-driven compendium of data and performance ratios on the banking sector produced …

The four-year build up to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) going live is nearly over, with just eight weeks left until financial institutions have to be compliant. But …

"I’m much happier in Beirut than in London or Sydney or Melbourne. We belong to our roots,” says Salim Sfeir, chairman of Bank of Beirut (BoB), Lebanon’s seventh largest bank. …