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Banks and the government are together on this. Banks have been making huge money from lending to the government at very high interest rates.

It was nice and easy money, so much that they failed to diversify their investment.

However this national debt did not convert into real economic growth. Most probably it was wasted through corruption and mismanagement.
VincentKeyboard wrote This is atrocious. You don't mess with a man's food!
This is capitalism, when demand goes up, prices goes up.

The government has been taxing poor people forever, which is very bad for social stability.

Have very poor people struggling which you neglect and exploit, and very rich people which keep getting richer and keep getting favored, you will have an unstable situation... It's as if Lebanon has learned nothing from 15 years of civil war.

Sociology is the key.

If we want a technocrat government, there should be many sociologists in there.
Guitaret wrote
Another thing guys, for those of you with saving accounts that will try to withdraw money from tomorrow when the banks open, please keep us posted as many of us need to know how much they are truly broke.
I think I will go with my camera, and try to take some photos of the queues.
Any inside information about LBP to USD transfers (before it was allowed with freezing of up to 1 year). Is that still the case?
sero wrote
Do you think this is just happening due to current situation? and when banks open everything will be back to normal?
This is happening because they want to maintain the peg ($1 = 1500).

One reason to maintain the peg is to be able to pay back the national debt. If the lira devaluates, it will become hard to pay back the debt.

I dont think it will change anytime soon. It will only be possible to lift the USD withdrawal restrictions when the customer confidence in the banking system is restored. Otherwise everyone will rush and take out all their dollars which they cannot allow.
i didn't read the whole thread but the whole dollar issue is because hezbollah affiliated companies and personnel took the USD from lebanon to syria to help them overcome the sanctions and they caused this whole dollar issue here.

bank aren't at fault all these measures are dictated by BDL to help the lira stay stable or it will crash real bad.
Do you have any written sources to back this claim, by any chance?
The USD recent issue started with the news that ATMs/Accounts were being emptied from USD and went to Syria especially in the Beqaa area because the Syrian pound was suffering due to US sanctions.
The above news was everywhere but no one knows about the specific numbers since BDL thrives on lack of transparency.
Probably this is no longer covered in the news because the issue is now bigger than our historically never useful neighbors.
What is the situation at banks today? Anyone went?
Limits, conditions, waiting time?
rolf wroteWhat is the situation at banks today? Anyone went?
Limits, conditions, waiting time?
- Bank Audi
- Cheque in USD collected in cash
- Everything went smooth
- $45 commission ( 3‰)
- Loans completely stopped ( personal, cars, new credit cards etc... )
- Went early morning at 8:30 AM
Kareem wrote
rolf wroteWhat is the situation at banks today? Anyone went?
Limits, conditions, waiting time?
- Bank Audi
- Cheque in USD collected in cash
- Everything went smooth
- $45 commission ( 3‰)
- Loans completely stopped ( personal, cars, new credit cards etc... )
- Went early morning at 8:30 AM
3% or per mil?

yesterday bankmed took 1% commision on withdrawal
xerxes wrote
Kareem wrote
rolf wroteWhat is the situation at banks today? Anyone went?
Limits, conditions, waiting time?
- Bank Audi
- Cheque in USD collected in cash
- Everything went smooth
- $45 commission ( 3‰)
- Loans completely stopped ( personal, cars, new credit cards etc... )
- Went early morning at 8:30 AM
3% or per mil?

yesterday bankmed took 1% commision on withdrawal

3 per thousand. 1% is really too much. Are you sure ? which bank ?
Please boycott the exchange places, these criminals want to be billionaires in a couple of weeks while putting huge commissions on the rates, if we all boycott them including buying internet and cell phones line recharges we can make them return to normal.
I am upset that there are still no law to fix a max commission rate for them since the Lebanese war
Hmmm... I think I will rather boycott people who do not understand how free markets work.
There should be a balance.
Because in case of some unfortunate events, free market naturally exploiting vulnerability of people and jack up prices, which in result spiral things out of control and activate natural mechanism of regulating their greed - pogrom.
And i dont think this is good.
FNB charging 3000L.L per 1000$ for anything sub 2000$ and 2% (yes, that's percent) for anything over 2000$
xterm wroteFNB charging 3000L.L per 1000$ for anything sub 2000$ and 2% (yes, that's percent) for anything over 2000$
Just to understand the situation better, they're taking 2% when you withdraw from ATM ? or counter ?
Blom Bank has a 2500$ limit per week, and they charge 5$ per 1000$, so 12$ per 2500$
No $ at the ATM, only at the counter and IF they have $ available
Kareem wrote
xterm wroteFNB charging 3000L.L per 1000$ for anything sub 2000$ and 2% (yes, that's percent) for anything over 2000$
Just to understand the situation better, they're taking 2% when you withdraw from ATM ? or counter ?
Most banks ATMs don't even have dollars, so you have to use the counter
infiniteloop wrote Please boycott the exchange places, these criminals want to be billionaires in a couple of weeks while putting huge commissions on the rates, if we all boycott them including buying internet and cell phones line recharges we can make them return to normal.
I am upset that there are still no law to fix a max commission rate for them since the Lebanese war
People can't just boycott exchange places. Our economy highly depends on USD and its becoming a hassle to withdraw USD from banks.
Due to high demand and low supply, exchanges are buying USD at a high price, hence they need to sell it at high price to make profit. Of course some of them are abusing this, but i guess its still the fault of BDL and our politicians after all.
infiniteloop wrotePlease boycott the exchange places, these criminals want to be billionaires in a couple of weeks while putting huge commissions on the rates, if we all boycott them including buying internet and cell phones line recharges we can make them return to normal.
I am upset that there are still no law to fix a max commission rate for them since the Lebanese war
@infiniteloop I am not going to describe you as naive but rather I will share with you my story regarding the shops that sell recharge cards.
My brother has a small cell shop and dealing with recharge cards is his daily business and here is what you need to know:
Service Centers (for Touch & Alfa) will sell you (dealer or regular customer) the recharge card with the exchange of 1507.5LL. Sound great? But guess what? They will only sell you a max of 3 cards because they want you to deal with their resellers. Their resellers (official or black market ones) will sell you at the exchange of 1600LL (3 weeks ago), 1650LL (2 weeks ago), 1800LL(last week) and now they will only accept USD.
In the case of my brother he has only a few USD in his cash drawer that will have to use to buy recharge cards to end up selling them to customers in LL for 3.5% profit if (and only if) the exchange is 1500LL. In this case, it will be very stupid of him not to sell his USD notes for a currency exchange shop for 1700LL (don't you think) and now he has 2 choices:
Sell the 1-month recharge cards for 49,000LL and risk being shout at and reported to the ministry.
Not sell recharge cards.

Now he is not selling recharge cards because he has no access to USD and adding to this problem the bad economy and low purchasing power of customers, he will shutdown his business soon.

Stop being angry at the "small" people.