Lebanese banks buy their media reputation for $1.17 billion

archyde news spending through the media facilitated the issuance of a friendly letter to banks during the crisis, including in the period during which financial services were effectively stopped following the crisis, and the effect of previous spending is still valid. A recent study concluded that Lebanese commercial banks undermined, through spending, the discourse that might threaten their interests, and this model still exists.

How did the Lebanese commercial banks exploit the television institutions to market narratives that preserve their interests? This video highlights banks’ spending between 2012 and 2021 and its results. pic.twitter.com/twkW5kZfVI — The Policy Initiative (@TPI_lebanon) July 15, 2022

revealed A new study published by The Initiative Policy . observatory It was prepared by Sami Zgheib, Wassim Maktabi and Sami Atallah, that the Lebanese banking sector, which pushed itself into bankruptcy in order to make quick profits, was to instill “confidence” in the country’s risky financial system by spending large sums on advertisements in the media to spread a “story” stability and prosperity,” even as the country’s economy stagnated.

Commercial banks used the marketing tool to attract deposits to their risky portfolios and achieve record profits before the crisis in 2019. After that, banks maintained a relatively low level of spending in the absence of banking services, only to influence the narrative regarding the causes of the financial crisis and who should be. to take responsibility for it.

The study revealed that between 2012 and 2021, the banking sector bought $1.17 billion in television , split between 80% before the crisis in 2019 and 20% following it. She pointed out that most advertisements (97%) are invested in the six most watched media organizations in Lebanon, namely (MTV), (LBCI), “Al-Jadeed”, (NBN), “Future TV” and (OTV).

The researchers pointed out that regarding 57% of the advertisements, or approximately $530 million out of the $931 million of advertisements that were spent before the crisis, were conducted in parallel with the financial engineering operations of the Central Bank. After the value of purchased bank advertisements stabilized at an average of regarding $100 million annually between 2012 and 2015, it increased significantly (by 75%) and averaged $175 million between 2016 and 2018: $141 million in 2016, $170 million in 2017, and 215 million dollars in 2018.

The study concluded that, according to this method, the banking sector owned between 12% and 15% of the total media space in the country during this period, which attracted the attention of many Lebanese TV viewers.

The researchers said that the media spending campaign “has achieved its goal for the bankers”, as they got a great return on their investment, while the depositors were deceived. The volume of deposits in commercial banks increased from $155 billion in January 2016 to nearly $179 billion at the end of 2018, while the sector recorded record high net profits each year, totaling $5.9 billion in these three years alone.

And 33 banks bought from these ads, and they were issued by 14 banks, which are considered one of the largest Lebanese banks, and they spent 99% of the total value of the ads. Among those banks: Bank Med, Banque Libano-Française and BLOM Bank, which collectively spent nearly $400 million on . As for media organizations, MTV was the best seller during this period, followed by Future TV and LBCI, which together earned nearly $550 million. OTV also got the lowest share of the six TV channels with $100 million.