The head of parliament's economy committee argues that a law clarifying financial losses and responsibilities must precede bank restructuring to protect depositor rights.
For seven years, Lebanese depositors hear the same phrase: your money is there. When they go to the bank, they cannot access it in full.
Behind this contradiction lies an unsettled financial crisis. The gap between the state, the central bank and commercial banks has never been precisely measured, nor have the losses been assigned to any responsible party.
Parliament approved a bank restructuring law weeks ago, meant to establish a framework for handling troubled banks and reorganising the sector. But restructuring raises a fundamental question: how can a bank be reorganised before its actual financial position is known, losses are calculated, and responsibility is assigned?
Freddy al-Bustani, head of the parliamentary economy committee, has long called for a law addressing the financial gap in parallel with bank restructuring, saying further delay is unacceptable. In February 2025, he submitted an alternative bill to protect deposits and restore financial and banking order, allowing full deposit repayment over five to six years.
Al-Bustani places deposit protection before sectoral reorganisation. He argues the aim is not to rescue banks at the expense of depositors, but to rescue deposits, because 'there are no banks without deposits'.
He insists depositors must bear no part of the losses. 'I will do everything in my power so that the depositor bears no part of the losses, because he is not responsible,' he said. Responsibility, he argues, must fall 'first on the state, then the central bank, then bank management', while the depositor is 'innocent' of the crisis.
Al-Bustani calls deposit rights 'non-negotiable' and demands funds be returned to their owners.
The problem, in his view, goes beyond bank restructuring to the sequence and connection between laws. Parliament is drafting a law to restructure more than fifty banks 'without actually knowing their financial condition', which he calls 'a legislative error'. Tying one law to another that does not exist provides no sound basis for resolution.
'Bank restructuring cannot succeed before responsibilities in the financial gap are determined and settled in a financial order law,' he said. Restructuring should not precede loss and responsibility calculations, but should follow an integrated legislative process that addresses the gap and protects depositor rights.
Al-Bustani rejects repeating the financial engineering implemented under former central bank governor Riad Salameh, which he says 'destroyed people's homes'. He calls instead for 'engineering based on rights': an approach whose primary goal is protecting deposit holders and returning their money.
He also raised the question of information about bank accounts and transfers. Banks say this data goes to the central bank and not to the courts, yet banking secrecy has been lifted. Tracing money, in his view, directly determines responsibility. The financial gap cannot be addressed without understanding how losses accumulated and which bodies caused them.
Al-Bustani questioned why Lebanon, a small country, needs fifty or sixty banks. Some, he suggested, were established for 'money laundering, drugs or tax evasion'. Bank restructuring must therefore go beyond troubled institutions to include genuine auditing of all banking institutions, tracing funds and assigning responsibility.
Protection of rights extends beyond bank deposits. Al-Bustani prioritises pension fund money, particularly funds for teachers, engineers and lawyers who deducted from their wages over decades to secure their futures. Returning this money to its owners, he said, is 'far more important than the question of interest'.
On negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, al-Bustani was clear: no agreement is possible without passing a financial order law. Determining responsibility for the financial gap and establishing a framework for distributing losses are essential prerequisites for any sustainable financial settlement.
