Defending the banks’ bottom line

ENAR

The Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) is the nerve center of what is the sole highly developed part of the country’s financial sector. It is also the main lobbying organization for banking interests, responding harshly to proposals for higher taxation of banks and calling such moves “illegitimate” and discriminatory. Executive sat down to talk banking with Makram Sader, the ABL secretary general.    When the Parliament in April began debating proposals for new taxation on banks to fund the salary scale for teachers and public servants, ABL quickly rejected these concepts. The public discussions of the proposals and ABL’s position have been intense since then. Has the association changed its position in any way? We said that it is unfair to impose double taxation on the banking industry, penalizing this industry because we are very transparent and publish all statements of P&L [profit and loss] and all our accounts