Lebanon Offers Banks Dollars as ‘Haircut’ on Deposits Ruled Out 

Lebanon’s central bank has no plans to impose formal restrictions on the movement of money or force depositors to accept losses, its governor said, but will offer “unlimited” dollars for commercial lenders to finance trade and meet customer demand through weeks of protest.

With Lebanon deep in political paralysis, bank chief Riad Salameh announced a series of banking measures to ease the sense of crisis and avoid a shortage of goods in the market. Lenders will now accept Lebanese pounds from clients repaying dollar loans, reevaluate credit facilities cut as the anti-government uprising began and cover checks that bounced as a result, he said, also asking banks to restore credit-card limits some had lowered.