The Central Bank (BDL) issued on July 14th, 2025 basic circular 170 (Decision 13735) related to cautionary measures to protect Lebanese financial and economic sectors from dealing with unregistered companies and institutions and those who are subject to external sanctions. BDL stated that the purpose of this circular is to solve the issue of unlicensed financial sector that was mentioned in Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a step to decrease money laundering and terrorism financing.
The circular prevents banks, financial companies, financial intermediary companies, collected investment funds, and any company licensed by BDL to deal with unlicensed institutions, funds, exchange offices and money transfer companies, and associations that are subject to external sanctions. It prevents any direct or indirect transaction, partially or full, such as:
BDL circular reveals that non-compliant parties will be subject to penalties such as hold or withdrawal of license, freezing accounts, or transferring to special investigation committee.
The circular to be implemented upon publication and to be published in the official gazette.
On a different note, BDL announced an agreement with “K2 Integrity”, a US company specialized in risk management, compliance, and financial investigations. The reason behind this agreement is to fight the cash economy in addition to combatting all forms of illegal and fraudulent activities. It also declares that this is one of a series of steps to be taken by the Central bank to get out of the FATF Grey list. The company will provide the needed consultation and technical support to execute the procedure to improve anti-money laundering and combatting terrorism financing. As per BDL, “K2 integrity” has a vast experience in consulting central banks, governments, commercial banks, and FinTech companies in more than 100 countries.