The Lebanese Central Bank’s quarterly bulletin shows some 2.31% decrease in the net value of the securities portfolio on the books of the Lebanese financial sector (banks and financial institutions) during the first nine months of 2021 to LBP 1,870.1 billion ($1.24 billion), from LBP 1,914.3 billion ($1.27 billion) at year-end 2020. On an annual basis, the net value of securities portfolio held by the financial sector dropped by 0.94% from     LBP 1,887.8 billion ($1.25 billion) at end of September 2020. In details, the value of equity securities, which constituted 66.94% of the Lebanese financial sector’s net securities portfolio, fell by 1.01% year-to-date yet rose by 6.40% annually to LBP 1,251.9 billion ($0.83 billion). On the other hand, long-term debt securities, which represented some 32.98% of the sector’s net securities portfolio, fell by 4.80% since the beginning of the year and by 12.73% y-o-y to LBP 616.8 billion ($0.41 billion).

Medium & long-term banks controlled the lion’s share (29.87%) of the financial sector’s placements in equity securities, followed by commercial banks (27.42%) and financial institutions (22.77%). Insurance companies detained the largest stake (42.58%) of the financial sector’s placements in long-term debt securities, trailed by commercial banks (34.45%) and medium & long-term banks (15.55%).

From an asset allocation standpoint, the Lebanese financial sector’s securities portfolio was majority concentrated in U.S. equity instruments (29.95%), U.S. long-term debt securities (15.77%), and U.K. short-term debt securities (71.43%). The allocation of the investment portfolio by type of instrument across other countries at end of September 2021 is sketched in the table below: