Desperate Lebanese Are Robbing Their Own Banks to Get Savings
- Clients stormed as many as 7 banks, demanding their money
- IMF staff to visit Lebanon to discuss delayed reforms
Security forces outside a bank branch following an incident where a depositor stormed the bank demanding to withdraw their frozen savings, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sept. 16.
Photographer: Ibrahim Amro/AFP/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
Wielding real or toy guns, angry Lebanese have forced their way into as many as seven banks this week to access trapped savings, as the country’s crippling financial crisis pushes people to take the law into their own hands.
Informal capital controls are in place across Lebanon -- blocking bank customers from withdrawing foreign currencies and savings in full -- as an economic implosion that began three years ago shows no sign of easing.