Foreign lenders cutting ties with Lebanon’s central bank: Sources

HSBC and Wells Fargo are among lenders that have closed accounts with Lebanon’s central bank, sources told Reuters news.

Foreign lenders including HSBC and Wells Fargo are cutting ties with Lebanon’s central bank, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency, underlining the country’s international isolation as it reels from economic crisis. In a letter to Lebanon’s public prosecutor last week, central bank Governor Riad Salameh warned that foreign correspondent banks were starting to curtail their business relationships with the local financial system, while Wells Fargo had closed a central bank account in dollars, and HSBC had shut its British sterling account, according to three sources from the banking sector and the judiciary. Salameh described “negative shocks” in the relationship between the central bank – the Banque du Liban – and foreign correspondent banks, which he said would make it tough for Lebanon to transfer foreign payments and purchase basic goods from abroad, a judicial source said.