Eleven Lebanese banks have tied up the dispute by submitting a memorandum to the Ministry of Finance to compel the state to fulfill its legal and contractual obligations toward Banque du Liban.
Eleven banks, namely, in alphabetical order: Bank Audi, Bank of Beirut SAL, Banque Libano-française SAL, Banque Libano-suisse SAL, Banque du Crédit libanais SAL, BBAC SAL, Blom Bank, Byblos Bank SAL, Fransabank SAL, MedBank SAL, and SGBL SAL, lodged a preliminary appeal with the Ministry of Finance, asserting their status as creditors of Banque du Liban (BDL).
In the memorandum, the eleven banks emphasized the prejudice they had suffered as lenders to BDL due to the latter’s failure to demand repayment from the state of the amounts they had lent it. The eleven banks also demanded that the state cover all losses reflected in the Central Bank’s balance sheet based on the Alvarez & Marsal report.
Should the state fail to comply, the eleven banks will bring the matter before the administrative court to force it to honor its commitments.
The claimant requested the Lebanese State to repay its debt to the Central Bank amounting to $16,617,199,858, which it had undertaken to pay in the same currency.
In addition, the claimant requested from the Lebanese state to cover the deficit reflected in the BDL’s balance sheet over the financial years 2015 to 2020, as mentioned on page 118 of the Alvarez & Marsal report on the Central Bank’s revised and corrected balance sheets.
The revised and corrected balance sheets reflect deficits, in particular a negative balance in the order of $51,302,155,887 in 2020.
The requesting party therefore asks the Lebanese State to pay BDL the sum of $51,302,155,887 under the provisions of Article 113 of the Code of Money and Credit.
Lastly, the eleven banks have asked the state to cover the negative balance of BDL’s balance sheets for the 2021 and 2022 financial years after reviewing its balance sheets based on the criteria and correction rules adopted in the Alvarez & Marsal report.
