Where does one even begin? From the inability to withdraw deposits, to the depreciation of the Lebanese currency, and the default on the Lebanese Sovereign Debt (held in big part by the banking sector), Lebanese banks’ balance sheets have suffered a blow, in addition to self-imposed capital controls on withdrawals. The future of the Lebanese banking sector is puzzling: mandated or voluntary mergers of commercial banks, bankruptcies, restructuring, haircuts on deposits… All of these proposals have been put on the table in 2020, though discussions with the International Monetary Fund have been halted on the side of the Lebanese Government. What appears as a financial crisis has a strict political component: it is difficult to separate economics from politics in Lebanon. Capital controls and bank runs As soon as the October revolution began, panic hit Lebanon. The Lebanese rushed to banks to retrieve their deposits. The October revolution shook whatever
