In May 2016, Banque du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, completed the first phase of a swap operation with the Ministry of Finance (MoF). Following that, BDL pulled the financial engineering tool out of its bag. It proceeded to banks with an offer to enter into a transaction in which they would have to bring…
Toward a national strategy
Financial literacy is a hot global policy potato that emerged as the flavor of the month for October 2016, according to the taste buds of the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) and a publication by the Association of Banks (ABL) in Lebanon. “Financial literacy, financial capability and consumer protection have been in focus…
A view from the other side
Law 161 was passed five years ago to create a financial regulatory agency and structure capital markets in Lebanon. Some market players are becoming restive and others are criticizing omissions in the law’s implementation and aspects of the CMA’s methods. To understand how things look from the CMA’s perspective, Executive sat down with CMA Executive…
A desire to monopolize the Lebanese forex market?
One issue has emerged as a stumbling block in the relations between the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and parts of the financial industry in recent months. The concerned sub-sector of the financial industry is a group of companies specializing in digital currency trade, also known as forex platforms or, fx companies. The Lebanese problem with…
To be or when to be
On the face of it, the story of financial markets and their regulator, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), looks like just another manifestation of Lebanese chaos. Institutions and measures that were prescribed by law in context of the CMA’s creation (in this case, Law 161 of 2011) are overdue in their implementation. Not just in…
The Gulf after oil
It is timely and prudent to review the policies of Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The region, which is known for deriving much of its economic revenues from the exporting of oil, entered difficult fiscal waters around 2014. It is in need of new ideas for economic development, given the confluence in 2016 of uncertainty about…
Rocky relations
Just a few years ago Lebanese banks were apprehensively awaiting regulations they expected would impact business. These arrived with the United States’ introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), alongside international standards for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF), as well as the implementation of Basel 3 regulations – a framework for basically…
The twisted tale of the Lebanese Canadian Bank
You thought it was over, didn’t you? Assuming you remember the rise and demise of Lebanese Canadian Bank, from its ascendance in the 1990s until it was struck by US allegations of terrorism finance and money laundering (for Hezbollah) in 2011. Executive trusts that you also know of the subsequent investigations and negotiations. They resulted…
Meet the megas
The confidence many developers have in the Lebanese real estate market is certainly not inspired by the numbers. On paper 2015 and 2016 look like the two worst years since 2007, yet this year and last have seen the launch of a handful of large-scale residential projects – one of which is the largest development…
Finding the funding for big tech dreams
Aasim Saied has some unorthodox ideas about how technology entrepreneurs should fundraise and how best to structure a board of directors. Saied founded Akyumen, a self-described “digital products company committed to opening the door to innovation and advancing access to education through state of the art niche products that bring technology directly to your hands.”…