Muted sit-in by 'Depositors' Cry collective outside BDL, as Souhaid met with IMF delegation

The collective Depositors' Cry staged a protest on Wednesday in front of Banque du Liban (BDL), as BDL Governor Karim Souhaid was holding a meeting with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Only a handful of protesters gathered in front of the central bank’s headquarters in the Hamra district of Beirut, holding signs calling for respect for "the depositors' rights." "Lebanon will never recover" without this, read some of the signs, which also denounced "the government’s plan to erase the deposits," according to photos posted on the group's X account.

After the law amending banking secrecy was passed in April and the law setting the framework for bank resolution was approved this summer, the draft bill currently under development regarding the restoration of financial balance and the return of deposits is the main reform awaited by the IMF and Lebanon’s partners for the implementation of an IMF funding program.

The Depositors' Cry association is, according to its critics, considered close to the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), which believes that the central bank and the state should take responsibility for the crisis.

Led by Mission Chief Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, an IMF delegation arrived in Lebanon for a visit to continue discussions on a "comprehensive reform program" intended to revive a crisis-hit economy, according to the financial institution’s wording. On Tuesday, the delegation met with Finance Minister Yassin Jaber. That evening, the minister indicated that the law to organize the allocation of Lebanon’s massive accumulated financial losses, which triggered the collapse of its banking sector, would not be adopted before the Lebanese delegation heads to Washington in mid-October to attend the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.