Publication: Financial Sector Assessment Program - Lebanon : Capital Market Development Technical Note
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2013-12
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2014-03-25
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Lebanese capital market is relatively small as the financial market is dominated by the banking sector. It is apparent that banks dominate financial intermediation in Lebanon to the extent it may inhibit the development of capital markets. Government sees the need to develop capital markets to help finance corporate growth and infrastructure development. It is incumbent on the Government to establish a comprehensive capital market development program, which includes efforts to increase supply and demand, strengthen supervision and enforcement, and must be accompanied by an effective outreach campaign, both domestically and internationally. On the demand side, creating a steady flow of investment into instruments with a long-term horizon, primarily from the pension and insurance sectors, will help grow the markets. Increased demand from institutional investors and issuance by large companies will attract more companies to the capital markets. All these efforts need to be complemented by the issuance of effective regulations, and proper supervision and enforcement. A proactive and concerted campaign regionally and internationally may be conducted once there is a strong evidence of support from the private sector, and especially once new IPOs begin to come to the market. Similar campaigns like these have been proven to be effective, as experienced by other markets, such as Chile and Brazil. Meanwhile, promotion of the market and domestic investor education will need to be done in concert, not only about investing in the stock market, but also with respect to various other savings programs suitable to retail investors such as investment funds
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“World Bank. 2013. Financial Sector Assessment Program - Lebanon : Capital Market Development Technical Note. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17357 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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