If there were any doubts, Lebanese banks threaten to close their curtains, according to a press release from the Association of Banks in Lebanon, after the bill presented to the parliamentary finance and budget committee aimed at obliging shareholders and managers of financial institutions, as well as senior officials to repatriate sums transferred abroad since the introduction of informal capital controls in November 2019.
As a reminder, 43% of bank shares belong to politically exposed persons. Thus, among the main shareholders of Bank Audi, is Prime Minister Najib Mikati while the Hariri family would own 10% of the shares of banks in Lebanon, according to a study carried out in 2016.
This information comes when local banks are already considered insolvent by their correspondent banks abroad or even in a state of selective default by international rating agencies due to their inability to allow the withdrawal of sums deposited in foreign currency.
