The Central Bank (BDL) announced on Thursday that it is increasing the number of beneficiaries of the main circular No. 166, allowing more people to withdraw dollars from their bank accounts, which have been subject to restrictions for five years in the absence of formal capital controls.

The amendments to this text, introduced in Intermediate Circular No. 711, ensure that depositors who converted their Lebanese pounds into dollars after Oct. 30, 2019, following the collapse of the local currency, and regardless of the amount of these conversions, can benefit from the mechanism and therefore withdraw 150 dollars per month.

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The following are still excluded from this mechanism:

- Depositors affected by Circular No. 154 (those who transferred more than $500,000 – or their equivalent in foreign currency – abroad after July 2017) and who did not comply with the instructions given to them (return 15 percent of the amounts transferred and deposit them in a "special account," frozen for five years – a ratio that rises to 30 percent for members of the boards of directors of banks, their main shareholders, or one of the "politically exposed" persons).

- Persons who have traded in checks since Oct. 31, 2019.

- Depositors who have repaid in Lebanese pounds the balance of bank loans of more than $300,000.

- Depositors who have made transactions on the Sayrafa platform for more than $75,000.

- Depositors who continue to benefit from the main circular No. 158, and withdraw between 300 and 400 dollars each month, depending on the date of subscription to this mechanism.

It should be noted that before this text, only accounts funded by dollars, and not through Lebanese pounds converted into dollars, were affected by the mechanism put in place by circular no. 166, which allows these beneficiaries to withdraw $150 per month (up to a total limit of $4,350) from their bank accounts denominated in "lollars" (dollars blocked in the bank), and on sums deposited between Oct. 31, 2019 and June 30, 2023.

At the same time, the BDL also amended the text of the main circular no. 147, through the intermediate circular no. 712, requiring banks to accept the checks they had issued on behalf of their customers, provided that they had not been used, so as to deposit them in accounts and apply the mechanism of circular no. 166 to them, if applicable.

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These two measures follow the exceptional modifications, applied "in view of the emergency conditions that the country is experiencing," and introduced by the BDL on Sept. 25, to allow depositors who benefit from the mechanisms set up by the main circulars No. 158 and 166, to withdraw three times the monthly amounts that they withdraw each month. A measure put in place only for the month of October.

Circulars No. 158 and 166 are part of the series of texts issued by the BDL since the beginning of the banking crisis, to partially offset the effects of the restrictions illegally applied on accounts present in the pre-crisis financial system. They had been extended by one year at the end of June 2023, so that their mechanisms remain applicable until the end of June 2025. Circular No. 166, dated Feb. 3, 2024, replaced Circular No. 151, which only authorizes small withdrawals in Lebanese pounds at an exchange rate well below that prevailing on the market.

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

La BDL permet à plus de déposants de retirer des dollars en fonction de la circulaire n° 166