'No to the government’s devious plan!': Demonstration by depositors in front of the BDL

A few dozen people gathered Friday morning in front of the headquarters of the Central Bank (BDL), in the Hamra shopping district in Beirut, to “demand the imposition of a timetable for returning savings to their depositors,” reports the state-run National News Agency (NNA).

The mobilization was organized at the call of the collective “Depositors Outcry,” which relayed the protest on its X account. “The bankers are in paradise, the depositors in hell,” read several signs in the videos distributed by the group. A few dozen people were visible on these videos, in a mobilization that appears to have taken place peacefully.

“No to the government's sneaky plan to [disappear] people's savings. Our money is a red line!," said the president of Depositors Outcry, Alaa Khorchid. This demonstration in front of the BDL is “the last chance to preserve what depositors have amassed during their lives, while [Caretaker Prime Minister] Najib Mikati said that the government would soon decide to make savings disappear,” he continued, denouncing the comments of the Outgoing Prime Minister. Several soldiers and police officers were present to supervise the demonstration. Hamra Street was closed.

“Message of fire”

Another demonstration took place in front of a Bankmed subsidiary, in the Ain el-Mreisseh district. “We lit fireworks in front of this bank,” said the spokesperson for Depositors Outcry, Moussa Agathy, contacted by L’Orient-Le Jour. “We were told that they were planning to eliminate savings above $100,000. Another unacceptable measure,” he continued.

In a video published on the Depositors Outcry Facebook page, a user filmed the mobilization in front of Bankmed. “Here is a message of fire addressed to this bank,” he shouts, while another holds the device for launching the fireworks that burst on the building. “It’s a message to all the banks,” the user continues.

Agathy also affirmed that another outburst took place in front of a subsidiary of the BBAC (Bank of Beirut and the Arab Countries), Clemenceau district. “We criticized the president of this bank, we asked him to return the savings. The security personnel were very tense, but nothing serious happened,” adds the spokesperson. When contacted, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) did not immediately respond to our requests regarding these incidents.

Depositors in Lebanese banks have repeatedly expressed their anger against the banks since they began imposing restrictions on them in late 2019, at the start of an unprecedented economic crisis in which Lebanon is still mired. Several depositors decided to take justice into their own hands by robbing their own bank to demand the return of their savings. Others have taken legal action with varying degrees of success in Lebanon and abroad.

The authorities have still not intervened to regularize this unprecedented situation in which technically bankrupt banks continue to confiscate their customers' money. BDL, for its part, was content to put in place several measures to adjust the banking restrictions in place.

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.