Recently, the banks revealed their tactics by pressuring the exchange market through a sudden increase in demand for dollars. This led to a significant rise in the exchange rate, and the Governor of the Banque du Liban announced a rate increase and selling dollars in front of banks. Banks resorted to striking due to their attachment to the exchange platform as the sole source of revenue.
A secret agenda existed between the Banque du Liban and the banks since the banks violated safe banking practices by depositing all funds into the Banque du Liban. The Banque du Liban used these funds to stabilize the exchange rate, but instead of tapering this process, it engineered risky financial practices to secure imaginary profits for banks.
This led to monetary instability in a few months before the inevitable collapse, for which the Central Bank and banks continued to lie regarding their support via a fake process of operating the banks by buying dollars at low prices. The aim was to finance all imports gradually while the banks secured an outlet to transfer funds abroad. To boost bank profits, a criminal price was imposed on depositors who withdrew their deposits and lost more than half of their value.
The Banque du Liban provided banks with a means of liquidating dollar deposits by withdrawing them in Lebanese pounds at less than half the black market price. An exchange platform became the new profit theatre for banks to buy and sell dollars. The banks returned to benefit from banking profits and ended their strike as they gained incredible profits via this process.
This game is detrimental to the lira, depositors, and the country at large, and there is nobody to stop it. This is a political commentary.
Within a few days, the banks revealed their game through the pressure they exerted on the exchange market by a number of money changers who suddenly raised the demand for dollars in huge quantities, which led to a rapid and significant rise in the exchange rate. Here, the Governor of the Banque du Liban announced the raising of the exchange rate and opened the door to selling the dollar at this price in front of the banks, which had reported that one of the reasons for the strike that they resorted to renewing was due to their adherence to the activity provided by the exchange platform as a single door to profit following the disruption of other aspects of banking activity.
Between the Banque du Liban and the banks, a hidden pole began since the high interest policy by which the banks pumped all deposits into the Banque du Liban, contrary to all the rules of safe banking work, and contrary to the obligation of trust that obliges them not to risk deposits in investments or debts with one party, and its high degree of risk is known in advance. The Banque du Liban was pumping this money to stabilize the exchange rate in an infernal game that explosive indicators began to accompany, and instead of gradually stopping it, it decided to proceed with gambling through financial engineering that provided imaginary profits for banks outside any concept of investment, and did not achieve monetary stability beyond a few months before the collapse began.
Upon the collapse, the game of the Central Bank and the banks continued through the lie of support, which was a fake process to operate the banks by buying dollars at a low price of 1,500 pounds per dollar, to finance the import of all goods, and start gradually withdrawing from them, and the banks achieved, in addition to the imaginary profits from this process, securing an outlet for transfer Funds abroad under the name of import.
The common game of the Central Bank and banks was embodied by adopting a criminal price once morest depositors, on the basis of which they were forced to withdraw their deposits, and they lost more than half of the value of their deposits. Through this method, the Banque du Liban provided banks with a way to liquidate dollar deposits by withdrawing them in Lebanese pounds on the basis of less than half the price on the black market, and the price today, for example, is 15 thousand pounds, while the dollar hovers above one hundred thousand pounds.
An exchange platform that was the new profit theater for banks to buy and sell dollars. It is bought from the Banque du Liban at 20% less than the black market price and sold on the black market through a network of accredited money changers at the prevailing rate and achieving high profits while the country is bleeding, and the Central Bank buys expatriate remittance dollars at the market price and sells them to banks. At less than this price, covering the difference with Lebanese banknotes that were printed without any account of their impact on the exchange rate, rising from station to station.
The banks returned to benefiting from banking profits, so they suspended the strike, and it has nothing to do with the month of Ramadan or other reasons.
The game of the Central Bank and banks is at the expense of the lira, at the expense of depositors, and at the expense of the country, and there is no one to stop it!
Political commentary
In conclusion, the game played between the Banque du Liban and the banks at the expense of the country and its people is a clear indication of the greed and corruption that has plagued the financial system in Lebanon. The imaginary profits achieved through financial engineering and the criminal price imposed once morest depositors have only caused more harm than good, leaving the country in a dire economic situation. The need for real solutions and accountability is evident now more than ever, as the people of Lebanon continue to suffer the consequences of these unethical practices. Only through transparency and a genuine commitment to change can the country hope to rebuild its shattered economy and regain the trust of its citizens.
