A confidential source from the Banking Supervision and Monetary Department at the Central Bank of Libya revealed to our source today, Thursday, that the total foreign exchange expenditures by banks during the first quarter of this year amounted to $5 billion, compared to $4 billion during the same period last year 2022, an increase of $566 million or a growth rate of 12.6%.
According to the report on the foreign exchange expenditures by banks issued by the Supervision Department, documentary credits represented 54.8% of the total uses of foreign currency by banks, while personal purposes accounted for 43.7% of the total, and remittances accounted for only 1.5%.
The report indicated that demand for personal purpose cards increased during the period by 25.5% compared to the same period last year 2022. As for remittances, the rate of change reached 192.8%, and documentary credits reached a rate of change of 2.4%, with a total rate of change for all categories of 12.6%.
The report also explained that the banks are ranked according to the total amounts sold in foreign currency, where the National Commercial Bank occupied the first place as the most banks using foreign currency during the period from 01/01 to 31/03/2023, with a market share of 15.2% and a total amount of $770 million. The second-ranked bank, according to the report, was Aman Bank for Trade and Investment, with a value of $605 million and 816 thousand dollars, while Jumhouria Bank came in third place with a value of $595 million. Yaqeen Bank ranked fourth with a value of $565 million, followed by Wahda Bank, Nuran Bank, UBCI, Libyan Islamic Bank and Sahara Bank, respectively, in terms of relative importance to the banks.