In a statement issued on Monday, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers announced caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s intention to convene a ministerial meeting on Friday, February 23 at 3.30 PM, “with a single item on the agenda, namely the draft law on the situation of banks in Lebanon and their restructuring, which was previously distributed to ministers.”
Earlier, Mikati had considered abandoning the idea of presenting the draft law on financial regulation and bank restructuring during the next cabinet meeting, following the decision taken by the State Council on February 13.
The State Council had overturned a cabinet decision in May 2022, planned as part of its financial recovery strategy, which would, above all, have destroyed the banking sector and deprived depositors of their funds.
On the other hand, the caretaker Prime Minister is currently studying the possibility of “convening another ministerial session for the morning of Thursday, February 29” with “an agenda to be distributed at a later date.”
In any case, the fate of the two planned ministerial sessions is in the hands of the ministers, who may fail to achieve a quorum. The Council’s Presidency asked them to “confirm their presence in Lebanon in order to attend the two sessions, before an official invitation is conveyed.”
With regard to the ministerial session scheduled for Friday, February 23, the text also asked caretaker ministers “to send their comments on the draft law on the situation of banks within the next two days at the latest, so that they can be compiled in a table and distributed before the session in preparation for discussion.”
