Lebanese banks will reopen tomorrow, Monday, “through the channels determined by each bank” after a week in which they closed their doors amid a wave of raids on several bank branches by depositors demanding to get their money by hand.
The decision to reopen the banks came after a meeting of the Lebanese Banking Association on Sunday with “the need to ensure the continuity of customer service given the current difficult security conditions and the need to maintain security.” customers and employees alike,” the association said in a statement.
The Lebanese Banking Association said in a statement about the “lack of adequate state protection” of bank branches.
The statement said: “The association has decided to reopen the banks, starting Monday, through the channels designated by each bank for the transactions of commercial, educational, hospital and other institutions, as well as through ATMs for everyone, which allows them to make transactions. their deposits and withdrawals. It also allows for wages in the public sector after they are transferred to banks from the Bank of Lebanon and wages in its localized private sector.
Two weeks ago in Lebanon, there were several break-ins at a number of local bank branches as depositors forcibly demanded access to their savings, forcing local banks to close.
Since the fall of 2019, Lebanese banks have imposed strict limits on bank deposit withdrawals, which have gradually increased until it has become almost impossible for depositors to manage their money, especially those deposited in US dollars, with the value of the lira falling by more than 90% against the dollar.
The phenomenon has been on the rise since it first appeared last August, when a gunman took hostages at the Federal Bank in Lebanon and turned himself in to police after agreeing to receive some of his financial contributions for his father’s treatment.
The shooter agreed to surrender after accepting $30,000 of his bank deposits, which he said were in excess of $200,000.
The World Bank has called Lebanon’s economic crisis one of the worst in the world since 1850.
