BEIRUT: Moody’s negative outlook of both Lebanon’s sovereign bonds and banks’ deposit ratings is seen as another strong message that the political vacuum and failure to implement reforms can no longer be ignored. Just one day after Moody’s changed the outlook of sovereign bonds to negative, the international rating agency changed to negative from stable the outlook on the long-term local-currency Ba3 deposit ratings of the three largest Lebanese banks: Bank Audi, BLOM Bank and Byblos Bank. The three Lebanese banks, which are listed on Beirut Stock Exchange, hold a big chunk of the country’s Treasury bills and Eurobonds and therefore their exposure to the public debt may be alarming.

But some of the banks interviewed by The Daily Star dismissed the possibility of any negative repercussion on the three lenders, stressing that the growth in deposits this year is expected to be reasonable. [Link]