Banque Libano-Francaise

Control rests with the Raphael family via the HOLDFING holding company, which is the bank's largest single shareholder. The French banking group Crédit Agricole held a significant minority stake of roughly 31% before the crisis but has since marked its investment down to near zero and no longer exercises meaningful influence over operations.

Like all Lebanese banks, BLF was forced to implement informal capital controls, restricting dollar withdrawals and transfers. Its balance sheet was decimated by the sovereign default on Eurobonds and the effective confiscation of obligatory reserves at Banque du Liban. The bank has since operated under a de facto "wait-and-see" regulatory framework, processing limited withdrawals at deeply discounted parallel-market exchange rates.

Its wealth management offering is curtailed to custody and advisory on remaining onshore assets, given that most large depositors have moved capital out of the Lebanese banking system. The principal investment book is no longer an active deployment vehicle but a legacy portfolio managing existing real estate, private equity, and insurance subsidiary assets through the restructuring cycle.

Crédit Agricole was a cornerstone foreign shareholder from the bank's founding in 1967. In the wake of Lebanon's crisis, Crédit Agricole wrote off its investment, removing its board representatives and reporting zero carrying value for the stake. The formal shareholding remains legally intact but is financially inactive, leaving the Raphael family as the sole active controlling bloc.

BLF has not executed a cross-border merger, relocated its legal headquarters, or voluntarily surrendered its banking license — paths taken to varying degrees by peers Bank Audi (which shifted senior management to Paris) and Blom Bank (which sold its Egyptian subsidiary to raise dollar liquidity). BLF's standalone Lebanese-chartered survival makes it a direct counterparty to any government-led depositor recovery plan, a high-risk posture that aligns its fate fully with domestic resolution.