Depositors, some armed, storm 4 Lebanese banks over withdrawal limits (updated)

First National Bank Alaska

04/10/2022 11:51

(Adds one more bank, adds PIX tag)
       BEIRUT, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Outraged bank clients, at
least two of them armed, stormed four commercial banks across
Lebanon on Tuesday over withdrawal limits that have been imposed
throughout the country amid a financial meltdown.
    Cases of bank hold-ups have snowballed across Lebanon as
residents have grown exasperated over the informal capital
controls that banks have imposed since an economic downturn
began in 2019.
    On Tuesday morning, a Lebanese man armed with a pistol and a
grenade entered the Chtaura branch of BLC Bank, demanding access
to his $24,000 in savings, according to Depositors' Outcry, a
group campaigning for angry depositors.
    The group told Reuters in a statement that the man,
identified as Ali al-Saheli, was in deep debt and also needed to
wire money to his son, who was studying in Ukraine.
    "He had been trying to sell his kidney," the statement said.
    Security forces later entered the bank and arrested Saheli
before he could access any money, the group said.
    BLC had no immediate comment for Reuters. 
    Also on Tuesday, a group of people employed at a state power
station in Lebanon's north stormed the First National Bank
Branch in the port city of Tripoli, according to witnesses.
    They were angry over delays in having access to their
salaries and fees they were being charged for the process, said
their union representative Talal Hajer from outside the bank.
    In a third incident, an armed depositor briefly took
hostages at Byblos Bank in the southern city of Tyre, according
to the Depositors' Association, another advocacy group.
    It said he was carrying a pistol and demanding access to his
savings amounting to $44,000. 
    After negotiations with the bank, he agreed to take 350
million Lebanese pounds in cash - worth nearly $9,000 at
Tuesday's market rate - which he handed to a relative before
being taken into custody, the Depositors' Association said.    
There was no immediate comment from Byblos Bank.
    A fourth depositor staged a sit-in at IBL Bank in the Beirut
suburb of Hazmieh, saying he would not leave until he was
granted unfettered access to his account, Depositors' Outcry
said. It was not immediately clear if he was armed.
    Last month, a spree of seven hold-ups in a single week saw
the banking association announce a closure for about a week.
    Five incidents have already rocked banks this week. On
Monday, Lebanese depositor Zaher Khawaja and some associates
managed to withdraw $11,750 from an account with more than
$700,000 at the Haret Hreik branch of BLOM Bank.
    BLOM said he was not armed and that it would investigate the
incident.
 (Reporting by Aziz Taher and Maya Gebeily, Editing by William
Maclean and Bernadette Baum)
 ((Maya.Gebeily@thomsonreuters.com;))