Fidus to morph into a
specialized or private bank

Equity increased to $25 million

Fidus SAL, a subsidiary of Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL), has received preliminary approval from the Central Bank (BDL) to convert into a specialized bank, according to Jean Hanna, the company’s Deputy General Manager.

For this purpose, Fidus increased its capital from $5 million to $20 million, and boosted shareholders’ equity from $7.5 million to $25 million.

The new bank, tentatively named Fidus Invest or SGBL Private Bank, is expected to start operations in July or in August after it finishes amending its statutes.

New services will include receiving medium and long term deposits, providing medium and long term loans, as well as fiduciary deposit agreements. The company will continue to offer current services, most of which involve trading in securities.

Fiduciary deposit agreements involve the investment of depositors’ funds in projects. Depositors share in profits generated, and banks take management fees.

“There is demand for this kind of service, and we will target this niche market which is not well developed locally,” Hanna said.

A few years ago, Financial Funds Advisors went through a similar transformation, morphing into FFA Private Bank.