Lebanon’s Fransabank Shuts All Branches after Judicial Order

Lebanon’s Fransabank Shuts All Branches after Judicial Order

Lebanon's Fransabank closed all of its branches on Wednesday after a judicial order and said it would be unable to meet client demands, including paying public sector salaries.

Fransabank, one of Lebanon's biggest lenders, said in a statement that the judicial order had frozen all its "shares, properties and assets".

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

Fransabank said it was implementing the order, with safes at its branches sealed with red wax. It said Ibrahim had closed his account and "recovered all of his deposit".

The bank did not immediately respond to emailed questions from Reuters seeking comment on Ibrahim's claim, and whether the it would appeal against the judicial ruling.

More than $100 billion remains stuck in a banking system paralyzed since 2019, when the Lebanese economy collapsed due to decades of unsustainable state spending, corruption and waste.

Banks have called on the government to pass a capital control law, but in the absence of formal controls, they have largely blocked dollar withdrawals and transfers abroad, sparking numerous legal challenges, with mixed results.

The judge who issued the order could