Bank of Beirut, in Dora, partially damaged by angry depositors on 29 August 2024. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/L'Orient Today.)
BEIRUT — Nearly 200 Lebanese depositors vandalized bank facades and set cash dispensers ablaze in Dora, an eastern suburb of Beirut, on Thursday morning, demanding the return of their "stolen savings," according to Moussa Agathy, spokesperson for the Depositors' Outcry group.
According to witnesses, around 50 depositors first targeted Banque Libano-Française, Arab Bank, BBAC, Federal Bank (whose branch in this district is closed), and Emirates Lebanon Bank. They then moved toward the Dora traffic circle to storm a branch of Bank of Beirut, but were intercepted by the Army and security forces. Agathy added that other banks were targeted as well, including Lebanese Swiss Bank.
This wave of vandalism, fueled by mounting anger and frustration, followed a sit-in planned for downtown Beirut earlier in the morning and comes nearly two years after a series of bank break-ins, carried out by depositors seeking access to their illegally frozen savings.
Four busloads of protesters
“We had four buses taking over 200 people from Martyrs' Square, where we had organized a sit-in the morning, to Dora” Agathy explained. “This action is to demand the return of our stolen deposits and address the delay and lack of resolution regarding the depositors' issues.”
The morning sit-in was attended by [Forces of Change] MPs Najat Saliba and Melhem Khalaf and caretaker Minister of the Displaced Issam Charafeddine.
The depositors decried the illegal restrictions that local banks have, since 2019, imposed on withdrawals and transfers. Such incidents, where depositors attack the banks withholding their money, peaked in 2022 in Lebanon — but have gradually declined since.
Despite these protests and actions by depositors' groups, the banking sector remains largely unaffected.
Workers cleaning the destroyed glass in front of BBAC bank in Dora on 29 August 2024. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/L'Orient Today.)
'Pushed into misery'
The dozens of protests and measures taken by the Depositors' Outcry in the past few years have not yielded any impact on their savings yet.
Two of the depositors who attended the sit-in are Pierre, a former construction worker, who is in his 70s and his 69-year-old sister, a retired teacher who taught in Lebanese schools for 30 years. The siblings are “victims of the Bank of Emirates and Lebanon, owned by Bank of Sharjah,” Agathy told L’Orient Today.
The bank "stole the savings they had set aside their entire lives, pushing them into poverty, despite being an Emirati bank with branches worldwide that provides its depositors' money everywhere except in Lebanon," said the spokesperson.
Main entrance of one of the banks in Dora destroyed by depositors on 29 August 2024. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/L'Orient Today.)
According to Agathy, the brother and sister are currently in need urgent medical care but are unable to pay for it due to the bank blocking access to their money.
"This is just one story among many that drove us to act today," said Agathy.
L'Orient Today attempted, unsuccessfully, to contact the press office of the Bank of Emirates and Lebanon for comment.
This new sit-in by depositors comes as the government is currently working on a new plan for banking restructuring and deposit restitution. Under this plan, which has received the approval of several banks, they would only be required to repay a sum of less than $9 billion in cash over a period of 11 years, while the total deposits amount to $86 billion.
