After many economists considered that the absolute powers of the Governor of the Banque du Liban contributed somewhere to the collapse of the economic and financial situation through financial engineering and money printing to meet the needs of successive governments, they believe that it is necessary to reconsider these powers as an essential step that accompanies the recovery plan that is required to be accomplished by Before the World Bank and the countries concerned with Lebanese affairs.
In this context, the economist Khaled Abu Chakra believes, “The monetary and credit law gave the Governor of the Banque du Liban absolute powers in various matters of cash management, and of course this is something aimed at facilitating his work and moving away from the bureaucracy that may be required by decision-making, which has to do with organizing monetary work in the country while Related to banks, liquidity, cash issuance, exchange rate, and others.
In an interview with the “Lebanese Debate” he stressed that “among these powers given to the Governor of the Banque du Liban, which is being demanded to be amended today in the systems of the modern world, are related to the ruler’s authority and his participation in several conflicting matters, meaning that the Governor of the Banque du Liban is the supreme head of the Banking Supervision Authority, and he is also The direct official of the Special Investigation Commission, which is the supreme authority in the Capital Markets Authority.Thus, the authority of the ruler combines contradictory powers, with conflicts of interest in more than one issue. It is related to the ruler’s accounts, for example, and he must therefore agree to take the decision to disclose his private accounts himself.”
And he continued, “With regard to the Financial Markets Authority concerned with regulating the affairs of the stock market and companies, the ruler also has authority over the Banking Control Commission, and therefore these contradictions today are no longer permissible for one person to hold, and it is required to distribute these powers and disengage them from the ruler of the Banque du Liban, this is in the first part.”
He revealed that “in the second part of this issue, and here is the danger, there is an effort to strip the ruler of some of his powers, related to what he was presenting in the Council of Ministers in the last session on April 18, through a draft law to amend Article 47 of the Money and Credit Law, which states” Granting the Banque du Liban alone the privilege of issuing cash stipulated in Article 10, “and therefore the right to issue cash is an exclusive right given to the Banque du Liban, and according to what they understood, the aim was to involve the Ministry of Finance in this issue, and this is of course a dangerous matter, as in the event of a vacuum in the governance of the Banque du Liban or In the event that the bank refuses to issue or print more pounds, the Ministry of Finance has the right to take the initiative and take the decision to print more banknotes.
He added, “We know that the problem of the problems in Lebanon is the excessive printing of the currency and the large inflation of the monetary mass in the Lebanese pound, which reached the limits of 85 thousand billion pounds before it recently fell to about 70 thousand billion pounds, which was leading to a rise in the exchange rate and many problems.” .
Abu Shakra concluded, explaining that “what is required today is the appointment of a council related to the Banque du Liban, which will have the issue of powers to issue cash and print the lira. There are some issues that must be modified and others that must remain as they are, as most of them are still valid and necessary.”
2023-05-03 12:50:04
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