The headquarters of Banque du Liban, in Beirut. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
The long-awaited reckoning over compensating depositors whose assets have been illegally frozen in Lebanese banks since late 2019 is nearing. A major taboo is beginning to fall: using state asset revenues to help repay deposits over a set period.Discussions are intensifying at Baabda Presidential Office, the Grand Serail, the Finance Ministry, and Banque du Liban (BDL) as officials work to draft a plan in the coming months to distribute losses — estimated at tens of billions of dollars — among the state, the central bank, and commercial banks. Read more Five years into Lebanon’s crisis, the banking lobby remains an unshakeable bastion Figures circulated among experts consulted by Baabda and the Serail on the distribution of bank deposits offer a glimpse of the sums involved:– 865,000 accounts concentrate about $15 billion.– 143,000...
The long-awaited reckoning over compensating depositors whose assets have been illegally frozen in Lebanese banks since late 2019 is nearing. A major taboo is beginning to fall: using state asset revenues to help repay deposits over a set period.Discussions are intensifying at Baabda Presidential Office, the Grand Serail, the Finance Ministry, and Banque du Liban (BDL) as officials work to draft a plan in the coming months to distribute losses — estimated at tens of billions of dollars — among the state, the central bank, and commercial banks. Read more Five years into Lebanon’s crisis, the banking lobby remains an unshakeable bastion Figures circulated among experts consulted by Baabda and the Serail on the distribution of bank deposits offer a glimpse of the sums involved:– 865,000 accounts concentrate about $15...