Financial Structure and Performance of Libya's Consolidated Commercial Banking Sector: An Empirical Analysis of the 2023–2024 Aggregate Balance Sheet and Income Statement

Abstract

This study provides a structural and comparative accounting analysis of the consolidated balance sheet and aggregate income statement of Libya's commercial banking sector for the financial years 2023 and 2024, using the disaggregated statistical tables published by the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) in its Sixty-Eighth Annual Report. Employing vertical (common-size) and horizontal (trend) analysis together with a set of structural and profitability indicators, the study documents that aggregate sector assets expanded by 18.2 percent to LYD 187.6 billion, driven overwhelmingly by a 25.4 percent increase in banks' deposits held with the Central Bank, which alone represented 60.8 percent of total assets by the end of 2024. Credit extended to the economy grew by 15.1 percent but remained confined to only 17.5 percent of total assets, while income-generating assets as a whole stayed below one-fifth of the balance sheet. On the funding side, customer deposits continued to dominate liabilities (78.3 percent), although the equity share rose sharply from 5.6 to 8.1 percent following a 100.6 percent increase in paid-up capital. Aggregate net profit rose by 82.6 percent to LYD 1.9 billion, propelled largely by foreign-currency related and commission income rather than core interest-type intermediation margins. The findings point to a banking system characterised by high liquidity, low credit intermediation, and profitability that is sensitive to exchange-rate and fee-based revenue rather than lending activity, with implications for prudential accounting, provisioning practice, and financial-sector policy in post-conflict, oil-dependent economies