Essential Middle East

Lebanon: Rob your savings?

People gather outside the Blom Bank branch in the capital Beirut's Tariq al-Jdideh neighbourhood on September 16, 2022, to express their support to a depositor, who stormed the bank demanding to withdraw his frozen savings. — People gather outside the Blom Bank branch in Beirut's Tariq El Jdideh neighbourhood on September 16, 2022, to express their support to a depositor, who stormed the bank demanding to withdraw his frozen savings [Ibrahim Amro/AFP]

Since 2019, banks in Lebanon have imposed draconian controls on deposits, effectively locking millions of customers out of their foreign currency savings.

As a result, bank heists in Lebanon have become a growing trend – but in this case, these armed “robbers” are not stealing anyone else’s money.

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They are just demanding access to their own savings.

In this episode:

Nizar Ghanem (@nizarghanem), Director of research at Triangle, co-founder of the Depositors Union

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Khaled Soltan. Our host is Sami Zeidan. Our research was done by intern Nada Shakir. George Alwer is the sound designer. Aya Elmileik is the lead engagement producer and Munera AlDosari is the assistant engagement producer. Omar al-Saleh is the executive producer.

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