Bassil at the Parliamentary Session: We Submitted Five Demands on the Banking Secrecy Law — Starting with Its Full Abolition

During a parliamentary session convened to approve several draft laws, the President of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, addressed the issue of the banking secrecy law. He stated:

“We submitted five key demands regarding the law. First and foremost, we call for the complete lifting of banking secrecy — not just in the context of bank restructuring. Second, we reject limiting the retroactive scope to ten years; the law should have no time restrictions. Third, banking secrecy must be lifted for any party tasked with auditing by the Central Bank of Lebanon or the Banking Control Commission. Fourth, we oppose allowing objections to be filed before the judge of urgent matters, as this would hinder the progress of investigations.”

Bassil also emphasized that “there is no need for implementing decrees under this law. If any are deemed necessary, they must come through a decree issued by the Council of Ministers, not by a decision of the Minister of Finance.”