BEIRUT — The head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon Salim Sfeir told Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday that commercial banks are willing to start giving loans again on the condition that Parliament passes a law guaranteeing that banks would be repaid in the same currency as the loan was issued, according to a statement from Mikati’s office.
Here’s what we know:
• According to the statement, Mikati told Sfeir that any solution to the country’s economic collapse will be in agreement with ABL and that the government “knows the importance of protecting the banking sector to protect the depositors’ money and to fund the economy.”
• Mikati also “pledged that he will talk with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to try to approve the capital control law in the next parliamentary session.” Parliament’s next session has not yet been scheduled.
• In his turn, Sfeir stressed to Mikati the importance of the capital control law, which would “keep what is left of money in Lebanon” in order to protect the depositors’ money adding that the banks are the most affected in the crisis and are waiting for an awaited rescue plan which is yet to be implemented.
• The capital control law was meant to be voted on in Parliament last month, four months after the Administration and Justice Committee finalized it and more than two years after the banking crisis emerged, but ended up being sent back to committee level for reconsideration.
• The law was supposed to be discussed in a joint parliamentary committee session on Thursday before the session was canceled, a source at Parliament told L’Orient Today without elaborating further.