ABL: On the Recognition of Lebanon’s Crisis as a Systemic Crisis

In his opening editorial for the Association of Banks in Lebanon’s May 2026 Monthly Bulletin report, Dr. Fadi Khalaf argues that the Lebanese financial collapse should no longer be viewed merely as a banking crisis. Rather, he contends that the crisis is fundamentally a systemic crisis that encompasses the entire economic, financial, monetary, and institutional framework of the country. According to the article, the widespread characterization of the events that began in 2019 as a “banking crisis” oversimplifies a far more complex reality. Drawing on recent international studies and the May 2026 IMF report, which classified Lebanon among countries that experienced systemic crises between 1970 and 2025, the author emphasizes that the collapse affected the state, the central bank, public finances, sovereign debt, monetary policy, exchange rate stability, and ultimately the banking sector itself.

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