The central bank of Lebanon (Banque du Liban) stressed on Thursday that banks must abide by all deadlines as stipulated in the circulars it had issued with regard to raising capital and secure external liquidity without any modification.

This comes in contradiction with all news reports being circulated in analytical articles, a BDL statement said.

“After Feb. 28, 2021, banks must send all their data to the banking control commission which shall, in turn, verify them and send reports pertaining thereto to the central bank,” the statement said.

The central bank of Lebanon also stresses that pursuant to article 70 of the Monetary and Credit Law, the stability of the banking sector is among its duties and priorities and therefore, all measures will be taken to redress the banks’ status and eventually enhance the banking stability and secure the funds and rights of depositors.

The central bank, the control commission, the special committee, the markets committee and the supreme banking committee will jointly coordinate under the supervision of the BDL governor in order to make circular #154, with all its provisions, succeed.

Paralysed by financial crisis and riven with political risk, a number of Lebanon’s banks are struggling to meet a central bank target to raise their capital defences by 20% by the end of this month.

The situation underscores the scale of the problem facing Lebanon’s banks, heavily exposed to one of the world’s most indebted states and starved of funding. Their customers have largely been frozen out of their dollar deposits and blocked from transferring cash abroad since late 2019.