Only $ 10,000 a day for each ATM. The captain reveals the details

Azza Hajj Hassan writes in Al-Modon under the headline “Have money changers stopped transferring dollars?”: “In recent months, the number of citizens benefiting from financial transfers abroad in dollars backed by money changers has decreased. Afterwards that the Central Bank of Lebanon adopted a mechanism to obtain dollars a few months ago Categories in urgent need of dollars through category “A” ATMs according to the price of the electronic platform. The ATMs decided at that time, in a circular issued by the Union of Money Changers, specify the caps for monthly transfers for foreign workers at $ 300, for a travel ticket for a maximum of $ 1,000 and once a year, and for the university fee outside Lebanon with $ 2,500 , for Lebanese housing installments of $ 1,000 per month, for Lebanese dollar debt installments with a maximum of $ 500, and to pay the rent of the residence of a student abroad with $ 1,000, but the maximum transfer limits have gradually decreased and the number of beneficiaries decreased.

And recently, remittances abroad were limited only to the wages of foreign workers, with a value that did not exceed 200 dollars for each foreign worker, but that subsequently decreased more and more and reached only 100 dollars. This coincided with the total cessation of money changers from transferring dollars abroad and the continuation of a very small number of them, which is limited to almost one teller in each region. Will the money changers stop transferring dollars abroad this week altogether?

Lowered ceilings
When the “A” exchangers began to transfer dollars abroad according to the exchange rate of the electronic platform (3,900 pounds per dollar), the amounts delivered to each of them by the Central Bank of Lebanon were approximately 800 thousand dollars a day, and these amounts gradually decreased, especially after the Bank of Lebanon resumed the delivery of the dollars transferred Abroad through money transfer companies (OMT, Western Union, etc.) to their owners in cash dollars and not in pounds according to the exchange rate of the electronic platform. This weakened its ability to intervene to support the dollar transferred abroad, or rather it weakened the ability of the Central Bank to practice the “installation of tarbish.” As a result, the Banque du Liban reduced the sums given to moneychangers and destined for remittances abroad from about $ 800,000 to about $ 30,000, before they were reduced last month to $ 20,000 per teller.

Currently, money changers are expected to stop transferring dollars abroad entirely after an email reached the Bank of Lebanon Union on Friday, December 11, informing cashiers that the amounts scheduled for delivery were again reduced from 20,000. at $ 10,000 a day for each ATM. An amount that is not enough for a quarter of the transfer requests submitted by citizens, as confirmed by the head of the Currency Exchange Union, Mahmoud Murad, in an interview with Al-Modon. When BDL transfers decreased to around $ 20 thousand per teller day, a large number of tellers withdrew, because this amount was not enough for remittances from domestic workers, indicating that the rest of the transfers ceased and the transfer ceiling for foreign workers was lowered to $ 100 per worker. The amounts are sufficient for most requests, “so it is better to completely stop the transfer process than to continue this way,” says Murad, and asks how we will divide the transfer funds, $ 50 per request. And what to say to the applicants who come forward and who will not be affected by the transfer due to the diminishing sums delivered from the Central Bank?

Uncensored
And if some money changers are willing to transfer dollars delivered from the Banque du Liban abroad for the benefit of foreign workers, some of them do not hesitate to exchange those dollars on the black market. According to sources from Al-Modon, one of the “A” money changers sells dollars at the black market rate and avoids transferring money for the benefit of foreign workers, with the exception of the requests of their relatives. There are many such ATMs. But how can these practices be controlled and monitored? Mourad believes that the monitoring mechanism is almost non-existent, “even the bill authorizing the Union to control these practices has not been approved so far.”
As a result, the dollar transfer mechanism may soon stop, due to the shortage of dollars in the Banque du Liban in the first place, in addition to the illegal practices of some money changers and contributing to the waste of the remaining dollars. Some fear that the total stoppage of remittances could increase pressure on the national currency, as demand for the dollar may rise further to secure the wage obligations of foreign workers.