No doubts on banking sector

Salameh says local banks invulnerable to Europe’s sovereign risks

The Governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, said that Lebanon is trusted by key players on financial matters in both the international community, and the United States.

Salameh said that throughout the meetings he held in Washington, the global financial officials affirmed that the Lebanese banking sector is not targeted, neither as a sector, nor individually. Salameh said that the officials assured him that “the Lebanese Canadian Bank incident would not be repeated.”

The governor said that the country’s fiscal policy proved successful in evading the global debt crisis. He said that “the system of policies and circulars (we adopted) allowed us to control our banking investments abroad.” Salameh said local banks are not vulnerable to the European sovereign risks due to a decision not to use more than 50 percent of the equity of the banks abroad.