They Still Got the Power: The Enduring Connections between Lebanon’s Banking Sector and the Ruling Class

This paper updates the findings of Chaaban (2016), “I’ve Got the Power: Mapping Connections between Lebanon’s Banking Sector and the Ruling Class”, Working Papers 1059, Economic Research Forum, by analyzing recent data on Lebanese commercial banks covering 23 main banks which concentrate 99% of the sector’s total assets. The findings confirm that the Lebanese banking sector is still controlled by crony capital, with individuals linked to the country’s political elites still exercising major influence over the sector. The new data (2022) has revealed that 34% of commercial banks’ assets could be attributed to political control. More than a third of banks’ boards of directors are occupied by individuals close to politicians, and most interestingly there has been a major increase between 2013 and 2022 in the number of bank shareholders having a holding legal structure. Currently holding companies control 42% of the banks in Lebanon, most of them registered in tax havens outside the country, a finding that has major implications for the potential restructuring and accountability of these banks in light of the financial crisis hitting the country.