The Lebanese Central Bank’s quarterly bulletin shows some 15.97% decrease in the net value of the securities portfolio on the books of the Lebanese financial sector (banks and financial institutions) during the first half of 2022 to LBP 1,963.4 billion ($1.30 billion), from LBP 2,336.4 billion ($1.55 billion) at year-end 2021. On an annual basis, the net value of securities portfolio held by the financial sector remained almost flat. In details, the value of equity securities, which constituted 50.20% of the Lebanese financial sector’s net securities portfolio, fell by 24.62% year-to-date and by by 27.12% annually to LBP 985.5 billion ($0.65 billion). On the other hand, long-term debt securities, which represented some 49.54% of the sector’s net securities portfolio, fell by 5.34% during the first six months of 2022, yet rose by 55.97% y-o-y to LBP 972.6 billion ($0.65 billion).

Medium & long-term banks controlled the lion’s share (31.51%) of the financial sector’s placements in equity securities, followed by financial institutions (25.93%) and commercial banks (24.66%). In a related note, commercial banks detained the largest stake (44.88%) of the financial sector’s placements in long-term debt securities, trailed by insurance companies (27.10%) and medium & long-term banks (24.51%).

From an asset allocation standpoint, the Lebanese financial sector’s securities portfolio was majority concentrated in U.S. equity instruments (23.81%), French long-term debt securities (19.77%), and U.S. short-term debt securities (74.51%). The allocation of the investment portfolio by type of instrument across other countries at end of June 2022 is sketched in the table below: