NNA - Lebanese Press Syndicate Dean Aouni Kaaki, accompanied by a syndicate delegation, visited Sunday Lebanon’s Central Bank Acting Governor Wassim Mansouri.
Kaaki praised the performance of Governor Mansouri, who "assumed his mission in the most difficult circumstances, and took some positive measures towards the depositors, and was able to manage the crisis and increase the Central Bank's assets in hard currency."
Discussions during the meeting touched on the financial status and the Central Bank’s conditions, particularly the possibility of finding solutions to depositors' funds. In this context, Mansouri said: "Since I took over, I have worked to alter the negative image of the Central Bank of Lebanon among the people...When the Bank’s real money numbers were presented, people felt relieved and improvement began...Here, we must thank the press that followed up on the matter and was fair to the Central Bank of Lebanon."
He continued: “When I took office, I tried to change a policy that was in place for more than thirty years, namely the policy of the Lebanese state’s reliance on borrowing from the Central Bank. The Central Bank of Lebanon communicated with the Lebanese state in order to improve collection, unify the exchange rate, reduce expenses, and organize the state’s finances. Consequently, there was no longer waste and corruption, and the main reason was to control spending and establish transparency. As a result, there was a budget surplus of $800 million for the first time in 50 years.”
Mansouri went on to explain how he cancelled the “Sayrafa” platform, stopped buying dollars from the market, and offered to sell the Lebanese pound, and thus managed to stabilize the exchange rate until today.
As for deposits, he said: “The depositor is not responsible, but unfortunately he is the one paying the price and does not know yet when his money will be returned. All deposits have been studied, and the ‘haircut’ principle must be applied in a thoughtful manner. The numbers will be presented to the new government, in the hope that a fair distribution of depositors’ money will be made.”
Mansouri also touched on Lebanon’s relationship with correspondent banks on the outside, reassuring that it has become more than “excellent” without any foreign reservations, adding that the work of Lebanon’s Central Bank has been commendably appreciated in terms of carrying out all its duties to help the state get out of the crisis.
The Central Bank’s Governor expressed his optimism about Lebanon’s next phase, saying: “There is positive news from the IMF, which is an international institution driven by a technical factor, in addition to the political factor, i.e. the countries that decide to finance a state and form a new government, this encourages assistance to Lebanon.”
Mansouri continued to underline that “the stability of the exchange rate is the most important thing,” adding that the process of changing the exchange rate happens within studied mechanisms.
“Today I confirm that there is no corruption in the Central Bank of Lebanon, because we have put matters back on the right track,” Mansouri reassured, affirming that decisions are made within the bank’s policy and not arbitrarily.
=========R.Sh.
