A total of seven banks have been frozen since Wednesday in Lebanon, where commercial banks have locked most depositors out of their savings since a financial crisis hit three years ago, leaving much of the population unable to pay for the basics. On Friday morning, an armed man identified as Abed Soubra entered BLOM Bank in the capital’s Tariq Jdideh district and demanded his deposit, the bank told Reuters. He was still locked in the branch hours later, telling Reuters by phone that he had handed over his gun to security forces and just wanted his money. “I’ll be here three, four, five days — I won’t move until I get my deposit,” he said.
“What do you want them to do?”
Soubra said he had refused the bank’s offer to take part of his US$300,000 in savings in the deteriorating local Lebanese currency. “I have deposited money in dollars, I want it back in dollars,” he said. Shubra was cheered by a large crowd of people gathered outside, including Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, who carried out the first ban in August to take his own deposits from his bank, which dropped the charges against him. Protesters chant slogans Friday as they sit outside an LGB Bank branch held by a depositor seeking access to his own savings, according to a bank official, in Beirut’s Ramlet al-Bayda district. (Mohammed Azakir/Reuters) “We’re going to keep seeing it happen as long as people have money in it. What do you want them to do? They have no choice,” said Hussain, who took about $30,000 of his $200,000 in savings. Lebanon’s banking association announced a three-day shutdown next week amid growing security concerns and called on the government to pass the necessary laws to deal with the crisis. The union a day earlier urged authorities to hold accountable those involved in “verbal and physical attacks” on banks and said lenders themselves would not be lenient.
The local currency was decimated
Authorities have been slow to pass reforms that would have given them access to US$3 billion from the International Monetary Fund to ease the crisis. Lebanon’s parliament on Friday suspended talks on the 2022 budget after a lawmakers’ walkout led to a quorum, further delaying efforts to finalize requirements to access IMF funds to ease the crisis. The meeting was described as “chaotic” by one lawmaker who spoke to Reuters. President Nabih Berri has scheduled the next meeting for September 26, after Prime Minister Najib Mikati returns from trips to London for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Lebanese army soldiers stand guard outside a LGB Bank branch in Beirut where a clash is said to have been taking place. (Mohammed Azakir/Reuters) Among the pending laws is a law on capital controls, which is still being debated by parliament. Failing that, banks have imposed unilateral limits on most depositors, allowing them to withdraw limited amounts each week in US dollars or Lebanese pounds. Draws in Lebanese pounds are worth less and less as the pound has lost more than 95% of its value since 2019 and hit a new low of around 38,000 to the US dollar this week. Banks say they allow emergency withdrawals for humanitarian purposes, including health care payments, but depositors say the banks have not kept their word. In the first case on Friday, a man was able to recover some of his funds from Byblos Bank’s Ghazieh branch, south of Beirut, before being arrested, the source said, adding that the gun in his possession was believed to be a toy. Byblos Bank could not immediately be reached for comment. WATCH l Tense Beirut bank hostage standoff ends without injuries (August 11):
Beirut bank hostage standoff ends with suspect arrested, no injuries
A hostage standoff in which a gunman asked a Beirut bank to let him withdraw his savings ended with the man’s surrender and no injuries. Authorities said the man had a can of gasoline and threatened to set himself on fire if he was not allowed to withdraw his money. Another incident saw a man with a pellet gun enter an LGB Bank branch in Beirut’s Ramlet al-Bayda district seeking to withdraw about $50,000 in savings, a bank official said. Mohammad al-Moussawi then threatened the Banque Libano-Francaise bank in Beirut with a fake gun and managed to withdraw $20,000 in cash from his account, he said by phone. “This banking system is cheating us and it deserves my shoe,” he said, telling Reuters he would go into hiding. BLF Bank told Reuters the incident “lasted five minutes” and that no employees were injured. The fifth incident on Friday afternoon saw a man open fire inside a BankMed branch in Chehime as he sought access to his own savings, an industry source told Reuters. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Friday’s incidents followed two more in the capital Beirut and the city of Aley on Wednesday, in which depositors were able to access some of their funds by force, using toy guns that were mistaken for real weapons.
