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SOUTH LEBANON

Municipal police officers briefly 'barge into' SGBL bank in Sour demanding salaries

Municipal police officers briefly 'barge into' SGBL bank in Sour demanding salaries

Police officers belonging to the municipality of Sour, South Lebanon, stormed a local SGBL Bank branch demanding to be paid their February and March salaries, Feb. 28, 2023. (Credit: NNA)

BEIRUT — Municipal police officers from Sour, South Lebanon, barged into an SGBL bank branch in the city on Tuesday, demanding that their February and March salaries be paid at the Sayrafa rate, before quickly leaving the premises without any acts of violence, one of the participating officers told L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region.

Only a few minutes elapsed between the moment the municipal police officers entered the bank and their departure, the officer said, adding that they left after the establishment assured them that their demand would "soon be heard."

"The problem lies at the central bank, not the SGBL," the officer said they were told by the bank.

On Tuesday morning, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) had reported that the police officers had "stormed" the bank branch.

Civil servants are given the opportunity to convert Lebanese lira into dollars at BDL's subsidized Sayrafa rate of LL45,200 to the dollar, rather than at the parallel market rate, which on Tuesday evening stood at around LL87,000 to the dollar. Exchange at the Sayrafa rate was made possible by central bank Circular No. 161, which has been extended until the end of March.

Read also:

Banks reopen for one week, Sayrafa still limited

Since Lebanon's economic crisis began in 2019, banks have imposed severe restrictions on customers, limiting withdrawals and transfers.

After years of such restrictions, Lebanon in recent months has witnessed a spate of bank holdups in which depositors burst into branches to claim, with varying degrees of force, their own savings.

These operations, carried out by armed and unarmed clients and resulting in varying degrees of success, have prompted banks to close temporarily several times, before reopening with reinforced security measures and stricter protocols for how and when they receive clients.

On Feb. 6, the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) launched an open-ended strike after a court decision allowing the resumption of a lawsuit by depositors demanding their funds in dollars from Fransabank. ABL then temporarily suspended the strike saying that commercial banks will remain open until the end of this week.

BEIRUT — Municipal police officers from Sour, South Lebanon, barged into an SGBL bank branch in the city on Tuesday, demanding that their February and March salaries be paid at the Sayrafa rate, before quickly leaving the premises without any acts of violence, one of the participating officers told L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region. Only a few minutes elapsed between the moment the...