Cyprus Crisis Sparks Lebanese Bank Anxiety
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/cyprus-crisis-sparks-lebanese-bank-anxiety
Bankers who had hoped that Lebanon would be spared the repercussions of the crisis in Cyprus would soon be disappointed.
At the last monthly board meeting of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, the governor of Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, rejected the Central Bank of Cyprus’ (CBC) suggestion that foreign parent banks provide guarantees equivalent to 20 percent of their deposits in Cypriot branches.
If the Cypriot measures are passed, estimates reveal that the guarantees required of Lebanese banks operating in Cyprus would amount to 500 million Euros ($655 million). Lebanese banks operating in Cyprus have been caught in the crossfire, specifically 11 banks with deposits worth 2.5 billion Euros ($3.2 billion).