Shark hunt

Playtime is over. Nearly one year after calling for unregulated lenders to step out of the shadows, Banque du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, imposed new restrictions and reporting requirements on what are locally known as comptoir creditors. Until January, articles 183 and 184 of the 1963 Code of Money and Credit – Lebanon’s banking bible – allowed companies to engage in consumer lending absent of any BDL supervision provided they did not accept deposits. While a few of these companies – most notably al-lebananiyeh al-arabieh lil tasleef, which was running television, print media and billboard campaigns to promote its willingness to approve a loan in five minutes – have garnered media attention because of legal trouble in late December and early January, the exact size of this market segment and the overall economic impact of the new rules are difficult to quantify. Consumer protection? In early 2015 and again