During the Monday legislative session, the Lebanese Parliament approved a law that lifts banking secrecy for public servants.
The legislation removes banking secrecy for a year in order to allow for the auditing of the country’s central bank, ministries, and other public administrations and institutions.
This comes around a month after Alvarez & Marsal, the firm that was hired to conduct a forensic audit into the accounts of the Banque du Liban (BDL), canceled its contract with the Lebanese government.
The audit was obstructed by banking secrecy laws, which the governor of the BDL, Riad Salameh, cited when he refused to provide the firm with information considered necessary for the process.
