Soldiers deployed in front of a branch of the Credit Libanais bank in Shehim, Chouf, on July 18, 2023. (Courtesy of Muntasser Abdallah)
BEIRUT — Has there been a return of bank hold-ups by depositors?
After the successful hold-up by a bank customer in Antelias, Metn, on Monday, two depositors held up their banks in South Lebanon and the Chouf on Tuesday to reclaim their own savings.
These actions come as the banking sector continues to impose illegal restrictions first implemented at the onset of Lebanon's economic crisis in 2019. The restrictions limit customer withdrawals and transfers.
In South Lebanon, a depositor managed to obtain $7,000 of his $10,000 savings after holding up a branch of Bank of Beirut and the Arab Countries (BBAC) in Bint Jbeil, the Cry of the Depositors association and local witnesses confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour. The depositor then returned home to Aita Shaab.
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In Shehim, in the Chouf, a depositor carrying a grenade held up a branch of Crédit Libanais to claim his blocked savings of $35,000, the National News Agency and witnesses reported.
The Internal Security Forces (ISF) and the Lebanese army deployed to the scene.
According to the depositor's brother, the bank offered to give the customer $5,000, but he refused. He ultimately settled for a $9,000 withdrawal.
The local mukhtar told to L'Orient-Le Jour that the customer surrendered himself to security forces after exiting the bank.
These incidents come just one day after a hold-up at a branch of Bank Al-Mawarid in Antelias, on the Metn coast, in which a depositor, accompanied by his 13-year-old son, managed to recover his savings of $15,000.
In recent months, Lebanon has experienced a wave of hold-ups in which depositors, sometimes armed, forcibly enter bank branches to claim their own funds.
Last Monday, a depositor in his sixties managed to obtain his entire savings of $6,500 after staging a short sit-in at the downtown Beirut branch of Banque Misr Liban and threatening employees with a bottle containing an unidentified liquid.
Last June, angry protesters ransacked four banks in the Sin al-Fil district of Beirut's eastern suburbs. In February, several banks were set on fire and ransacked during a raid carried out by the Cry of the Depositors association in Beirut's affluent Badaro district, home to several banking establishments.
Banks were also vandalized by angry demonstrators in Tripoli, Northern Lebanon.