The Lebanese Central Bank’s quarterly bulletin shows some 19.96% 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 2022 to LBP 1,870.0 billion ($1.24 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 47.24% of the Lebanese financial sector’s net securities portfolio, fell by 32.44% year-to-date and by by 29.44% annually to LBP 883.3 billion ($0.59 billion). On the other hand, long-term debt securities, which represented some 52.18% of the sector’s net securities portfolio, fell by 5.04% during the first nine months of 2022, yet rose by 58.19% y-o-y to LBP 975.7 billion ($0.65 billion).

Medium & long-term banks controlled the lion’s share (32.26%) of the financial sector’s placements in equity securities, followed by financial institutions (26.06%) and commercial banks (25.44%). In a related note, commercial banks detained the largest stake (40.28%) of the financial sector’s placements in long-term debt securities, trailed by insurance companies (28.13%) and medium & long-term banks (28.02%).

From an asset allocation standpoint, the Lebanese financial sector’s securities portfolio was majority concentrated in U.S. equity instruments (25.71%), French long-term debt securities (22.10%), and U.S. short-term debt securities (84.68%). The allocation of the investment portfolio by type of instrument across other countries at end of September 2022 is sketched in the table below: