Byblos Bank released its unaudited financial statements for the year 2022, revealing a net loss of $969.98 million as at end of year, compared to a smaller net loss of $17.76 million in 2021. In fact, the bank’s net interest income contracted by 4.15% y-o-y to $665.71 million, while net commission & fee income settled in negative territory at $343.01 million compared to a net commission & fee income of $48.94 million in 2021. Concurrently, Byblos Bank reported net losses on financial assets & other operating income of $882.27 million (of which some $874.23 million stem from financial assets at Fair Value Through Profit or Loss as the bank transferred a big chunk of its amortized cost portfolio to FVTPL). On the other hand, the bank booked some $23.26 million in provision write-backs on financial assets in 2022, compared to an impairment loss of $283.68 million in 2021. Consequently, the bank registered a net operating loss of $536.32 million in 2022 in comparison with a positive result of $268.04 million in 2021. In parallel, the bank’s operating expenses increased by 81.70% y-o-y to $370.62 million. More specifically, personnel expenses saw a 29.89% increase to $138.59 million and other operating expenses soared by 170.32% to $216.23 million. On the balance sheet front, Byblos Bank’s consolidated assets widened by 0.52% in 2022 to circa $17.30 billion as the LBP 3,056 billion increase in fixed assets (due to a possible revaluation of real estate) outweighed the 26.32% drop in net loans & advances to just above $1.38 billion and the 5.01% decrease in cash & balances with Central Banks to $9.80 billion. Byblos Bank’s financial assets at FVTPL contracted by 44.36% in 2022 to $90.10 million, with those booked at fair value through other comprehensive income (FVTOCI) rising by 3.86% to $110.44 million while financial assets booked at amortized cost decreased by 31.51% to just above $2.17 billion. Customer deposits at Byblos Bank sustained their downturn, dropping by 5.87% in 2022 to just above $12.41 billion. In this context, the bank’s ratio of net loans-to-customer deposits settled lower at 11.13% at end of December 2022 compared to 14.21% a year earlier, with shareholders’ equity ending the year up by 54.21% at $2.73 billion, as the aforementioned revaluation of real estate outweighed the period’s losses.