Lebanon’s Fransabank closes over court-ordered frozen funds payment – The National

Lebanon’s Fransabank closes over court-ordered frozen funds payment – The National

Lebanon's Fransabank on Wednesday closed all of its branches in the country following a judicial order freezing its assets based on a lawsuit filed by a depositor, a Fransabank source told Reuters.

Lebanese banks have frozen most savers out of their hard currency deposits since a financial meltdown in 2019, but the controls were never formalised in law and have been challenged in courts.

The judicial order required Fransabank to reopen the account of Egyptian depositor Ayad Ibrahim and pay out his deposit in cash, or else the bank's assets would be seized, his lawyer Rami Ollaik said.