Lebanon’s banks will close for three days after several violent incidents of customers seeking to withdraw their funds

Sep. 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The banks of Lebanon will close their doors between September 19 and 21 to protest the recent violent incidents in various branches of the country, where several people have broken in armed or by force to withdraw part of their savings, in the face of growing unrest by the crisis and the limitations on the withdrawal of funds from bank accounts.

The Lebanese Banks Association said in a statement that “following repeated attacks on banks and physical assaults on bank employees… and taking into account the risks, the board of directors has decided to close the banks between 19 and September 21”, before apologizing to customers for any inconvenience this decision may cause.

“The safety of employees and customers is the main priority of banks, as well as the interests of depositors, which they try to guarantee as much as possible in the midst of the difficult circumstances that the country is going through,” he pointed out. Thus, he has rejected “violence in all its forms” and has argued that “violence is not and will not be the solution.”

“The solution is to pass laws to deal with the crisis as soon as possible, given that addressing systemic crises such as the one the country is going through requires comprehensive plans that take into account all the causes and address them comprehensively,” he explained, as as reported by the Lebanese state news agency, NNA.

The announcement by the Association of Lebanese Banks has come on a day in which at least seven violent incidents have been recorded in banks in the country, which has led the acting Minister of the Interior, Basam Maulawi, to call an emergency meeting of the Central Security Council to address the necessary security measures to address the situation.

These types of events, which have been going on for several days, are part of actions that are “coordinated” by associations for the defense of client rights, as explained by the lawyer and activist Rami Ollaik in statements to the Lebanese newspaper ‘L’ Orient le Jour’. In response, the Association of Lebanese Banks has announced that banks will take “preventive security measures.”

Since 2019, Lebanese banks have imposed harsh restrictions on the withdrawal of foreign currency in the face of the serious economic crisis in the country, which has in practice caused an impediment for many people to withdraw their savings, at a time when nearly three quarters of the population have fallen below the poverty line.

The country has been mired in a serious crisis for years, a situation deepened by the explosions of August 2020 in the port of the capital, Beirut, the coronavirus pandemic and the situation at the political level, with tensions that have paralyzed the Government for months. Furthermore, the Lebanese pound has slumped in recent months, prompting the World Bank to state in June 2021 that the crisis is one of the worst on record globally since the mid-19th century.