The daily Al Akhbar indicates that the American treasury would seek the cooperation of the Association of Banks of Lebanon and that a meeting would have taken place between the head of the fight against terrorism and financial intelligence Brian Nelson and his members yesterday.
Thus, if the Banque du Liban is already cooperating with the United States, the latter would also have indicated to expect from the members of the ABL an increased cooperation because of the failure of the banking establishments to « identify the Lebanese personalities politically involved and identify the sources of their money and sources of wealth « .
He would thus call on the Lebanese banks to provide more detailed information concerning these people recalling that economic sanctions of the United States already target certain political leaders including Gébran Bassil, Ali Hassan Khalil, Youssef Fenianos, Jihad el Arab, Danny Khoury as well as Hezbollah. Brian Nelson denounces that a certain number of these personalities still have access to the local banking system.
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According to the report of this meeting, these personalities or institutions targeted by economic sanctions would not represent a problem, since they indicate that they do not have accounts with them, which the United States denies.
The Lebanese financial system is riddled with corruption. In particular, I am deeply concerned about the apparent lack of due diligence that banks apply to identify Lebanese and politically exposed persons and to identify the sources of their money and wealth.
Brian nelson
Brian Nelson is said to have denounced that Lebanese banks are providing fewer and fewer reports of suspicious transactions to the BdL’s special commission of inquiry. A certain number of them would however have identified accounts of personalities targeted by sanctions, indicates Brian Nelson who believes, however, that the fight against corruption cannot be solely because of the sanctions taken by Washington but that this change in which the local banks and institutions must come from within.
For their part, the Lebanese banks would ask in return for financing in foreign currencies in order to revive their « zombie » establishments, the daily notes.
