The Lebanese Central Bank’s quarterly bulletin shows some 14.72% decrease in the net value of the securities portfolio on the books of the Lebanese financial sector (banks and financial institutions) during the year 2022 to LBP 1,868.7 billion ($1.32 billion), from LBP 2,336.4 billion ($1.55 billion) at year-end 2021. In details, the value of equity securities, which constituted 45.12% of the Lebanese financial sector’s net securities portfolio, fell by 31.24% year-on-year to LBP 899 billion ($0.60 billion). On the other hand, long-term debt securities, which represented some 54.20% of the sector’s net securities portfolio, rose by 5.10% y-o-y to LBP 1,079.9 billion ($0.72 billion).

Medium & long-term banks controlled the lion’s share (33.55%) of the financial sector’s placements in equity securities, followed by commercial banks (26.00%) and financial institutions (25.37%). In a related note, commercial banks detained the largest stake (41.06%) of the financial sector’s placements in long-term debt securities, trailed by medium & long-term banks (28.93%) and insurance companies (26.28%).

From an asset allocation standpoint, the Lebanese financial sector’s securities portfolio was majority concentrated in U.S. equity instruments (22.95%), U.K. long-term debt securities (26.06%), and U.S. short-term debt securities (85.40%). The allocation of the investment portfolio by type of instrument across other countries at end of December 2022 is sketched in the table below: