Finance Minister Yassin Jaber, during a press briefing at the Ministry on Feb. 13, 2026. (Credit: Photo released by the Finance Ministry)
The Finance Ministry on Friday held an expanded meeting that brought together Finance Minister Yassin Jaber, Special Investigation Commission (SIC) President Abdelhafez Mansour, as well as the High Council of Customs, the Customs Directorate and the Revenue Directorate within the Ministry.
The purpose was to coordinate actions to help Lebanon move off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list.
The SIC is a special authority created by a 2001 law, with the power to lift banking secrecy as part of investigations into several types of financial crimes.
"There are measures to be taken by each of the entities present in order to achieve this," the minister said at a press briefing after the meeting.
He added that Lebanese representatives had met in January in Abu Dhabi with the FATF’s regional office to take stock.
"It’s a sensitive subject and we all need to work on it. There’s a lot of work to be done," he said, noting that restructuring the banking sector was one of the measures to be taken to limit the cash economy, which is one of the most urgent problems the country needs to address.
Lebanon was re-enrolled on this list in 2024, which brings together jurisdictions considered insufficiently effective in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
Lebanese authorities have prepared a plan with the FATF to be removed from the list, but the organization, which sets international standards for fighting financial crime, judged at its last plenary in February that the progress made had been insufficient for Lebanon to be considered compliant.
In concrete terms, the FATF considers that Lebanon has legislation that complies with standards, but reproaches its authorities, particularly the judicial and law enforcement authorities, for not implementing it effectively.
The Minister of Finance also chaired another meeting with members of the VAT department, focusing on ways to combat tax evasion and digitize certain procedures in order to optimize work, according to a statement from the ministry.
