Sovereignty incident · inc-2019-lb-capital-controls
Lebanon: bank closures and informal capital controls
Banks in Lebanon were closed from 18 to 31 October 2019 for retail and other transactions and reopened with informal capital controls; they closed again for 10 days from 9 November 2019. Banks set withdrawal ceilings of around USD 1,000 and LBP 2 million per week per account, with anecdotal evidence of lower ceilings on US dollars at many banks, and transfers of money out of the country were severely limited. The World Bank describes the controls as informal.
- When
- Since (ongoing or open-ended)
- Jurisdictions
- Lebanon
- Kinds
- Restriction
What happened
The incident begins.
- Open
No end date: ongoing or open-ended.
Forms of money
Who was affected: Holders of bank accounts in Lebanon, in US dollars and in Lebanese pounds. Cash already held outside the banks was not subject to the ceilings.
Forms of money affected
Forms of money not affected
Each form of money links to the Money in everyday life matrix, which compares their properties with sources.
Sources
Source: World Bank, Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2019: So When Gravity Beckons, the Poor Don't Fall