Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh in Beirut, November 2019. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
BEIRUT — Operations on Banque du Liban's Sayrafa platform would "continue as usual," BDL governor Riad Salameh said in a statement Wednesday, denying rumors that only companies — not individuals — would be able to use the platform starting in April.
BDL issued Circular 161 in late 2021, allowing civil servants, other individuals and some companies to exchange Lebanese lira for US dollars at the subsidized rate of BDL's Sayrafa platform.
This is one of the main mechanisms regulating the banking restrictions illegally put in place since the onset of Lebanon's economic crisis in 2019, which limit depositors' access to their dollar accounts.
The official rate in Lebanon, which had been LL1,500 against the US dollar since 1997, was recently increased tenfold to LL15,000. The Sayrafa rate is currently set at LL90,000, while the rate of the lira on the parallel market hovers around LL107,000, as of Wednesday morning.