Financial gap law won't be adopted for another 6 to 8 months, says Souhaid

The governor of Banque du Liban (BDL, the central bank), Karim Souhaid, said he does not expect the law on financial reforms and deposit recovery, also known as the financial gap law, to be passed for another six to eight months, in an interview with CNN Business Arabic on Monday, Sept. 7.Published by the government at the end of 2025, the draft law is intended to determine the scale of the losses, how they will be distributed, and the mechanisms for recovering funds that have been locked up since 2019. It remains subject to reservations from the BDL and “severe” reservations from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Souhaid, who said efforts are ongoing to “unify views.” Nine months later, no consensus version has been reached. The governor said he expects one by the end of September, before adding: “If we judge by the...