Lebanon’s parliament has approved some amendments to a banking secrecy law that has been a critical demand of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before it agrees to a bailout program.
“We agreed on a law to lift banking secrecy with some amendments where we widely expanded the number of groups that can ask to lift banking secrecy,” said the head of parliament’s finance and budget committee, Ibrahim Kanaan.
“Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund have not stopped, and we have been in constant communication in the past days and hours so there won’t be flaws in the agreement that Lebanon aspires to,” he added.
Among the amendments is the authority to lift banking secrecy off accounts retroactively to 1988. Kanaan told a local television station that some proposed amendments in line with the IMF’s critiques were voted out of the legislation during Tuesday’s session.
