According to Banque Du Liban (BDL) statistics, the consolidated balance sheet of financial institutions operating in Lebanon narrowed by 9.61% ($132.83 million) during the first four months of 2020 to $1,249.77 million, down from $1,382.59 million at year-end 2019. This can be mainly attributed to the 12.26% ($82.33 million) contraction in claims on customers to $589.07 million, coupled with some 54.26% ($27.81 million) decrease in claims on the non-resident financial sector to $23.44 million, and a 6.34% ($19.44 million) drop in claims on the resident financial sector to $287.24 million, which outweighed the 2.79% ($1.53 million) increase in cash & deposits with the Central Bank to $56.45 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 47.13% and 22.98% of total assets on a respective basis. On the liabilities side, liabilities to the resident financial sector plunged by 21.35% ($47.72 million) YTD April 2020 to $175.80 million, with customer deposits dropping by 11.61% ($21.84 million) to $166.28 million and liabilities to the non-resident financial sector decreasing by 17.27% ($21.53 million) to $103.16 million, altogether outweighing the 15.47% ($0.61 million) rise in public sector deposits to $4.55 million.