JPMorgan Says Lebanon Banks Resist Debt Swap With Eurobond Sales

  • Swap plan signals growing financial stress, JPMorgan says
  • Lebanon’s central bank wants to offer exchange into new notes
Photographer: Hasan Shaaban/Bloomberg
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Lebanon’s plan to get local banks to swap into longer-maturity Eurobonds may be meeting resistance and signals growing financial stress in the country, according to analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Local lenders started offloading their holdings of the country’s $1.2 billion bond after the central bank proposed an exchange into other instruments when it matures on March 9, a sign they could be reluctant to go through with the deal, JPMorgan said.