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‘Arab banks still in co-op with Lebanese FIs despite crisis’


Bangladeshpost
Published : 17 Feb 2020 09:17 PM | Updated : 31 Aug 2020 04:42 PM

A senior banker said on Monday that Arab banks have maintained their cooperation with the Lebanese banks despite the crisis prevailing in the country, the National News Agency reported.

"Arab banks have expressed their solidarity with Lebanese banks and they will maintain their cooperation with financial institutions in our country," Joseph Torbey, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of Arab Banks (UAB), said during his meeting with President Michel Aoun.

Torbey said he conveyed to President Aoun the experience of Arab banks amid crises similar to those prevailing in Lebanon, emphasizing the need to stay away from resorting to the judicial system in this regard. Lebanon has been going through a shortage in dollar crisis caused by economic slowdown, the drop in cash injections from Lebanese abroad and transfer by big depositors to foreign countries.

This has raised an intense debate in the past days among officials and experts to decide if Lebanon must settle 1.2 billion U.S. dollars Eurobonds maturing in March or it can avoid this heavy obligation amid serious financial deterioration in the country.