As of September 2012, there were 20 banks in Syria (11 private banks, 6 public banks, and 3 Islamic banks) with 536 branches, of which 172 in Damascus and suburbs, 80 in Aleppo, 39 in Tartous, 38 in Homs, 37 in Lattakia, 36 in Hama, and 34 in Al-Hasaka. Subsidiaries and Associates of Lebanese Banks were 6 out of the 20 with a total number of branches equal to 114 of which 44 branches located in Damascus and suburbs, 21 in Aleppo, and 11 in Homs. The total capital of these 20 banks attained 167 billion Syrian pounds at the end of the third quarter 2012, of which 16 percent the share of subsidiaries and Associates  of Lebanese Banks.

Public banks dominate financial intermediation in Syria with total consolidated assets of around 1559 billion Syrian pounds (March 2011, latest available), almost equivalent to 72 percent of total banking sector assets. Commercial private banks had 511 billion Syrian pounds of consolidated assets (close to 24 percent of the total) and Islamic banks accounted for 93 billion Syrian Pounds of consolidated assets (around 4 percent of total) at the same mentioned date. Subsidiaries and Associates of Lebanese Banks are all commercial private banks. Their consolidated assets reached 358 billion SYP at end of March 2011, the equivalent of 17 percent of total banking sector assets.

Total assets and net income of the six Lebanese related banks in Syria (5 subsidiaries and 1 Associate) reached their peaks in 2010 at 376.1 billion SYP (8 billion USD) and 2.2 billion SYP (47 million USD respectively). Total assets sharply declined following the Syrian ongoing fights to 302.0 billion SYP (5.4 billion USD) at the end of 2011 and 286.6 bill SYP (3.7 billion USD) at the end of 2012. This implies that total activity retreated in the past couple of years by 25 percent when evaluated in the Syrian pound and by around 63 percent when evaluated in the U.S. Dollar given the sharp deterioration of the domestic currency. Net income shrank to 35.7 million USD and 16.5 million USD during 2011 and 2012 respectively affected by deposits and loans contraction, rising non performing loans and large provisions. It is worth noting that the total assets of the 5 subsidiaries constituted only 4.4 percent of total consolidated assets of their parent banks by the end of 2011 whereas their net income contribution fell to 2 percent. Preliminary data shows also that this contribution in assets and income has dropped even further to below 3 percent and much less than 1 percent correspondingly by the end of 2012.

Source: Central Bank of Syria