Bank Audi

Stock performance

History

Bank Audi traces its roots to a family banking business in Saida in 1830 and was incorporated as a bank in 1962. It became Lebanon's largest bank, expanding into Egypt, Turkey, and other markets, before the Lebanese financial collapse that began in 2019 led it to sell its foreign subsidiaries, including Bank Audi Egypt, to raise capital.

Business model

Bank Audi provides retail, corporate, and private banking. Since 2019 its activity has been dominated by managing deposits trapped by informal capital controls, with lending sharply reduced.

Market position

Bank Audi was long the largest Lebanese bank by assets, competing with BLOM Bank and Byblos Bank.

Country impact

Like the rest of Lebanon's banking system, Bank Audi was heavily exposed to the central bank and the government, so the 2019 crisis froze depositors' savings, and the unresolved restructuring of the sector remains one of the country's biggest economic challenges.