Banker Antoun Sehnaoui, and a protest of angry citizens at the former Central Bank governor, Riad Salameh. (Credit: Illustration L'Orient-Le Jour/Moussa Maalouf)
It was autumn 2019. The banks pulled down their shutters. Parliament barricaded itself behind rows of barbed wire. In the streets of downtown Beirut, tens of thousands of protesters chanted slogans and marched with flags. In the chants, on banners and outside bank branches now sealed behind metal gates, one name kept coming up, second only to that of Banque du Liban (BDL)’s seemingly untouchable governor, Riad Salameh: Antoun Sehnaoui.Three months earlier, the tide had already begun to turn, although almost no one noticed. By the summer of 2019, Lebanon was in the grip of drought and wildfires, while storm clouds were gathering over its financial sector. Dollars had been growing scarce for months, and the prospect of restructuring the public debt was no longer taboo. At major banks, some depositors had begun pulling their money out,...
It was autumn 2019. The banks pulled down their shutters. Parliament barricaded itself behind rows of barbed wire. In the streets of downtown Beirut, tens of thousands of protesters chanted slogans and marched with flags. In the chants, on banners and outside bank branches now sealed behind metal gates, one name kept coming up, second only to that of Banque du Liban (BDL)’s seemingly untouchable governor, Riad Salameh: Antoun Sehnaoui.Three months earlier, the tide had already begun to turn, although almost no one noticed. By the summer of 2019, Lebanon was in the grip of drought and wildfires, while storm clouds were gathering over its financial sector. Dollars had been growing scarce for months, and the prospect of restructuring the public debt was no longer taboo. At major banks, some depositors had begun pulling their money out,...