The Lebanese Private Sector Network rejects all attempts to pressure the Central Bank

The Lebanese Private Sector Network (LPSN) firmly rejects all attempts to pressure the Central Bank, its Governorship, and the Government into reversing essential measures designed to regulate Lebanon’s cash economy. Monetary and financial policymaking is the exclusive mandate of the executive authority and the Central Bank — and must remain fully protected from partisan interference.

Lebanon is already under international monitoring and has been placed on the FATF grey list. Any further weakening of financial governance risks a downgrade to the black list — a scenario that would:

• Paralyze the banking system and international transfers

• Halt imports, exports, and commercial exchange

• Destroy businesses and eliminate thousands of jobs

• Strip youth and families of opportunities, including housing and education loans

• Severely diminish investor confidence and economic viability

We must ask ourselves:

• Do we want a cash-based, informal economy?

• Do we want Lebanon blacklisted?

• Do we want to lose more jobs?

• Do we want to become a country without a functioning financial system?

• Do we want to deprive our youth of their future?

Our answer is — clearly and categorically — NO.

Accordingly, LPSN:

✔ Reaffirms its full support for the Central Bank’s recent decisions to protect Lebanon’s formal economy

✔ Urges continued strengthening of compliance and anti-money-laundering measures

✔ Warns against any reversal that would serve narrow factional interests at the expense of national stability

Lebanon’s path to recovery depends on safeguarding the formal economy, upholding international standards, and ensuring that lawful businesses and workers — not illegal cash networks — drive our economic future.