The post-crisis application of IFRS in Lebanese Alpha Banks

Abstract

In Lebanon, the economic crisis has made it very difficult for banks to keep up with the issues of currency fluctuation as well as political interference all while going through the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to compare and contrast between Lebanese alpha banks as it will help give us a clear indication about how each bank has conducted the rightful procedures during the pandemic, but still complying by the IFRS. We have decided on Blom bank and Bank Audi since they are the top two Alpha banks in Lebanon carrying $1010.97 million in net profit combined in 2018 (Blom Bank, 2020). Lebanese banks are required to apply the IFRS in their accounting procedures which cover 16 standards. We will be using a quantitative research method using annual reports from 2018-2020 as secondary data. The research topic is targeting how the economic crisis in Lebanon has affected the way financial statements are reported under the IFRS. For this purpose, we aimed to conduct a research study about Bank Audi and Blom Bank to acknowledge this matter through a real-life context. The data collected will be analyzed and dissected into detailed and thorough concepts of how the IFRS was applied. Through these financial summaries, we will calculate the Leverage ratios as well as other ratios which will assist us in analyzing even more deeply the changes and adjustments made. The data underwent three important processes; data reduction, data display and conclusions drawing. These processes will be implemented in order to avoid the information to be misinterpreted in any way.