Byblos Bank Syria (BBS), the Syrian affiliate of the Byblos Bank Group, listed all of its shares on December 17^th on the Damascus S ecurities Exchange (DSE). BBS became the 7^th bank and the 12^th institution to be listed on the DSE. Other banks listed on the DSE include the Syrian affiliates of BLOM bank , Bank Audi and Banque BEMO, as well as the Arab Bank Syria, the International Bank for Trade & Finance and the Syria International Islamic Bank.The DSE officially started trading last March, with trading taking place two days a week . More…

Standard & Poors raised its long-term counterparty credit ratings on BLOM Bank , Bank Med and Bank Audi to ‘B’ from ‘B-‘, AND revised the ratings outlook to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’ . It also raised its short-term counterparty credit rating on Bank Med and Bank Audi to ‘B’ from ‘C’ . Standard & Poor’s does not rate Byblos Bank sal. The agency attributed the upgrades to its earlier upgrade of Lebanon’s long-and short-term sovereign credit ratings. More…

Standard & poor’s raised Lebanon’s long- term sovereign credit rating to ‘B’ from ‘B’- and its short-term sovereign rating to ‘B’ from ‘C’, and revised the outlook to ‘positive’. It also raised its transfer and convertibility assessment on Lebanon to ‘BB’- from ‘B+’,and affirmed the ‘4’ recovery rating on lebanon’s foreign currency senior unsecured debt that carries an average recovery of 30%/-50%. More…