Le journaliste Mohamed Zabib a révélé via les réseaux sociaux, des documents de la Banque du Liban en date du 17 décembre dernier, indiquant qu’elle refuse de transmettre l’identité des 31 banques et des 228 déposants politiquement exposés ayant transféré des fonds à l’étranger après l’instauration du contrôle informel des capitaux en novembre 2019.
La Direction des affaires juridiques de la Banque du Liban estime ainsi que cette demande contredit la législation du secret bancaire actuellement en place au Liban.
Cette information intervient alors que la banque centrale a déjà refusé de transférer les documents nécessaires à la mise en place d’une procédure d’audit juricomptable de ses comptes, une des conditions préalables et nécessaires au déblocage de l’aide de la communauté internationale, déjà sous le prétexte de la législation du secret bancaire.
An estimate of $ 2 billion in funds transferred to Switzerland alone
As a reminder, the Attorney General of the Republic, Judge Ghassan Oueidat, officially asked the Swiss authorities and their Lebanese counterparts on December 30, 2019 , information concerning the transfer of funds to the Helvetian country. At the time, it was estimated at more than 11 billion dollars the funds transferred abroad after the establishment of a moratorium on transfers abroad by the Association of Banks of Lebanon (ABL) since last October. with the closure of local financial establishments following the demonstrations of October 17, then the introduction of capital controls in November.
Since then the monetary authorities have estimated the sums illegally transferred at $ 5 billion
Still at the time, some sources mention the sum of $ 2 billion, others that of $ 11 billion which would have been transferred to accounts in Switzerland. This money would belong to Lebanese politicians and businessmen who would thus try to cope with a possible downgrade of their accounts in Lebanon or the risk of seeing certain banks go bankrupt.
And the unwillingness of politicians and bankers to transfer
In addition, the Banque du Liban had called on local financial institutions to increase their own funds to 20% of deposits and to repatriate 3% of the sums they hold with their corresponding banks by February 28, 2020 as stipulated by the circular 154.
This same circular asks bank presidents, members of the board of directors, major shareholders and senior executives, as well as clients identified as “politically vulnerable persons” and who have transferred abroad more than $ 500,000 or its equivalent in other foreign currencies since July 2017, to deposit 30% of these funds and block them for five years.
Some sources have indicated that in the face of these refusals, some banks have bought large amounts of dollars in recent weeks on the black market, purchases having unbalanced supply and demand and caused a significant de facto devaluation of the Lebanese pound against the dollar. .
A number of these financial officials finally announced their resignations so as not to be obliged to repatriate their funds.
