Lebanon: In search of a new role

Lebanese banks have lived well by investing in high-yielding treasury bonds. But with government debt issuance and interest rates set to fall, banks are looking for new ways to make money. Charles Olivier reports

Biggest Lebanese banks by shareholders’ equity ($m)
	*1997*	*1996*
Banque de la Méditerranée	316	248
Byblos Bank	243	88
Banque Audi	220	112
Banque du Liban et d’Outre-Mer	191	154
Banque Libano-Française	132	91
Fransabank	122	83
Banque Libanaise pour le Commerce	83	74
Crédit Libanais	74	61
Société Générale Libano-Européenne de Banque	70	54
Bank of Beirut and the Arab Countries	57	44
Beirut Riyad Bank	46	24
Source: based on Central Bank figures

Since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990, Lebanon’s banks have staged a remarkable recovery. Assets have quadrupled from $7 billion to more than $36 billion (nearly twice the country’s gross domestic product) thanks to money coming in from the Lebanese diaspora.