Diab meets a delegation from the Syndicate of Money Changers

Prime Minister Hassan Diab has received on Saturday a delegation from the Syndicate of Money Changers at the Grand Serail.

The delegation included Mahmoud Halawi, Ali Lakkis, Omar Kotb and Levon Costanian. Minister of Environment and Administrative Development Demianos Kattar, Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni, Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Brig Gen Mohammad Fahmi and Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh attended the meeting as well.

After the meeting, Mr. Halawi, speaking on behalf of the delegation, said: "Commissioned by the Syndicate’s Council, we held a meeting with HE Prime Minister Hassan Diab in the presence of key curators of the money changer profession, Lebanon's Central Bank Governor as well as the Ministers of Finance and Interior who were responsive to our proposals and clarifications about the nature of the money changer profession and its role in the national economy."

He added: "We discussed with relevant officials involved in the economic situation the next stage regarding the role of the money changer profession in securing livelihoods, especially basic commodities that the citizen needs on a daily basis. All parties are convinced of the essential role of the money changer profession in restoring the financial cycle in the exchange sector as it was before the strike".

Halawi further said: "In the recent period, the profession has been subject to several attacks, rightful at some time, tendentious and misleading at other times. The judiciary has the absolute right to deal with the issue of the currency exchange rate and has managed, through its investigations, to put the record straight. We are thankful to the judiciary for intervening in this file, because changers with good intentions to follow their work transparently and based on all circulars and laws, are attentive to cleaning the sector and removing loopholes that distort the sector’s reputation. Following a detailed discussion of the numbers, we have reached an agreement with the Prime Minister, Governor and ministers on forming an integrated link to suppress all phenomena adversely affecting the LBP exchange rate, with exchange sector playing a primary role. In view of the exceptional situation in the country, and since Lebanon’s market is a free market economy that cannot be transferred into any other type of economy, and in view of the crisis we are experiencing, we have committed to making exceptions and taking measures outside the purview of the common global stock exchanges. It is important for us to participate in such measures in order to secure as much food and economic security as possible for the citizen.”

Halawi added: "From the Presidency of the Council of Ministers’ rostrum, which we all hope it will manage to control the economy, address the crisis and solve it, we announce the ending of the strike, which lasted for a month while putting all our hopes into relevant stakeholders. We will resume our operations as of Wednesday morning and we will inform the Syndicate’s general board of the decisions and financial measures to be taken in order to control the situation as much as possible."