According to Banque Du Liban (BDL) statistics, the consolidated balance sheet of financial institutions operating in Lebanon narrowed by 9.09% ($125.72 million) during the first quarter of 2020 to $1,256.87 million, down from $1,382.59 million at year-end 2019. This can be mainly attributed to the 10.16% ($68.24 million) contraction in claims on customers to $603.16 million, coupled with some 50.43% ($25.85 million) decrease in claims on the non-resident financial sector to $25.40 million, and a 6.33% ($19.41 million) drop in claims on the resident financial sector to $287.27 million, which outweighed the 0.09% ($0.05 million) increase in cash & deposits with Central Banks to $54.96 million. It is worth noting that claims on customers and on the resident financial sector are the two largest asset categories on financial institutions’ balance sheet, accounting for 47.99% and 22.86% of total assets on a respective basis. On the liabilities side, liabilities to the resident financial sector plunged by 19.79% ($44.22 million) in Q1-2020 to $179.30 million, with customer deposits slipping by 11.96% ($22.49 million) to $165.63 million and other liabilities dropping by 8.48% ($20.70 million) to $223.35 million, altogether outweighing the 8.38% ($0.33 million) rise in public sector deposits to $4.27 million.