A passerby in front of a closed branch of the Bank of Beirut in Saida, South Lebanon, Feb. 7, 2023. (Credit: Aziz Taher/Reuters)
BEIRUT — The Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) decided to suspend its strike for a week starting on Monday, following a meeting on Friday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, a source at ABL told L'Orient-Le Jour.
On open strike since Feb. 6, the banks are demanding that Mount Lebanon prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun drop legal proceedings against several institutions and that Parliament adopt a law regulating capital controls.
The banks also denounce a recent judgment against Fransabank in a case against depositors, and demand "the pure and simple abolition of banking secrecy in Lebanon with retroactive effect, expressly indicated" in a law passed last October.
The ABL source, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the strike suspension was only temporary and was aimed at "facilitating the procedures for their customers."
The suspension comes at the end of the month, when public sector employees must collect their salaries.
The source said banking procedures would take place as usual during the coming week but couldn't confirm if that would be the case for Circular No. 161. The measure allows banks to provide dollars in cash to their customers by converting them from their accounts into Lebanese lira at the central bank's Sayrafa exchange rate.
That rate stood at LL45,000 to the dollar Friday afternoon, while the parallel market rate was around LL82,000.
This week, after several actions by prosecuting Judge Ghada Aoun against Bank Audi, the Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) and the Bank of Beirut, as part of a money laundering case, Mikati called for action from caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi.
Mawlawi subsequently instructed security forces not to apply Judge Aoun's decisions.
The interference was widely denounced, including by the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, which has demanded that Mikati and Mawlawi reverse their decision.