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Toufic Gaspard: 'The banks are robbing the Lebanese every day'

In August 2017, when Banque du Liban was still considered sacrosanct, he authored a study that would prove as controversial as it was prophetic: “Lebanon is facing a situation ... that could turn into a full-fledged crisis that affects the exchange rate and the banking sector, unless appropriate actions are swiftly implemented,” he wrote.

Five years later, while the authorities have still done nothing to remedy the consequences of the disaster, economist Toufic Gaspard — who worked with BDL in the 1980s and later with the IMF — published a new study for the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation, titled "To bank depositors in Lebanon (confronting banks, Banque du Liban, and the government)” in which he returns to the roots of the collapse which, in his opinion, remain poorly understood.

A member of the National Council to End the Iranian Occupation, Gaspard considers the crisis to be inseparable from issues of sovereignty.

Toufic Gaspard: 'The banks are robbing the Lebanese every day'

A man in front of an ATM of a bank whose facade was vandalized in Beirut, Sept. 22, 2022.(Credit: AFP)

After sounding the alarm in 2017 about the imminent risk of a large-scale banking crisis — which caused much controversy — you have repeatedly given your prognosis of the crisis and its causes. How do you explain the fact that, three years after the crisis began, these explanations are still necessary?In all these statements, whether written or televised, I am repeating myself for the most part. But it remains necessary because the prevailing official discourse continues to be hammered home to influence the public opinion. This discourse can be summarized as follows: “People put their savings in the banks, which put them in BDL, which lent the money to the government, which squandered it all ... Therefore, the public debt and government corruption are the only culprits.” This is absolutely false! It was the government that financed BDL...
After sounding the alarm in 2017 about the imminent risk of a large-scale banking crisis — which caused much controversy — you have repeatedly given your prognosis of the crisis and its causes. How do you explain the fact that, three years after the crisis began, these explanations are still necessary?In all these statements, whether written or televised, I am repeating myself for the most part. But it remains necessary because the prevailing official discourse continues to be hammered home to influence the public opinion. This discourse can be summarized as follows: “People put their savings in the banks, which put them in BDL, which lent the money to the government, which squandered it all ... Therefore, the public debt and government corruption are the only culprits.” This is absolutely false! It was the government that...