Since the country’s early inception in the 1920s banking has played a pivotal role in shaping Lebanon ’s economy. Today, it remains a resilient sector, especially when compared to other industry sectors, which have been plagued with low growth levels. For example, in February 2008, Bank Byblos reported that the country’s bank assets showed a 14.10% year-to-year growth. During the fifteen years of the 1975 civil war and up until this date, banking secrecy has undoubtedly contributed to the sector’s resilience, said Dr. Paul Morcos, legal consultant at the Bank of Beirut and the Arab Countries (BBAC) and author of the study “The challenges of the Banking Secrecy in Lebanon: A Comparison with Banking and Professional Secrecy in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Middle East”. According to him, during the 1975-90 period the volume of bank deposits increased by 392 times. Morcos also highlighted the importance of banking secrecy
