As of next week, depositors in Lebanese banks will finally be allowed to withdraw their deposits in dollars at their real value without deductions, but by installments.
According to “Al-Sharq Al-Awsat” newspaper published on Sunday, depositors receive their specified shares in dollars in cash, without requiring the withdrawal of a parallel amount in local currency at the official exchange rate (15,000 pounds per dollar), as it has been the norm for over two years.
This currency transfer represents a significant deduction of about 84%.
The depositor will be able to withdraw an amount ranging between 300 and 400 dollars in cash per month, and not exceeding 4,800 dollars annually.
Governor of the Banque of Lebanon Riad Salameh had deliberately amended the content of a previous decision that required depositors to withdraw an additional parallel amount from their deposit in dollars, but in Lebanese pounds, at a price of 15,000 pounds to the dollar, even though the exchange rate on the black market is approximately 90,000 pounds per dollar.
It is expected that the number of beneficiaries of the new decision will double.
This development in the processes of fulfilling the rights of depositors in Lebanese banks, albeit by installments within the currently available shares, is a qualitative shift in the management of cash liquidity in favor of bank customers who have suffered greatly over the past 43 months.
Lebanese depositors were only allowed to withdraw limited amounts of their outstanding savings, reluctantly accepting to bear significant cash losses, due to the the exacerbation of the monetary crisis, and dwindling hard currency reserves, which fell from about $34 billion at the beginning of the collapse (in 2019) to about $9.3 billion currently.
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