| Headline: Unloved banks look to reform Source: Euromoney Date: July 2001 Author: Philip Moore Syrians don’t trust domestic banks. Many would rather deposit their cash in Beirut than entrust it to the locals. Reform has a long way to go. Meanwhile the government, undaunted by the weak financial infrastructure, is proposing the establishment of a stock exchange.
“Theoretically,” says one economist, “it is illegal for Syrians to have bank accounts in Lebanon. But if you believe the unofficial figures saying that only 5% of Syrians actually have bank accounts in Syria, it is pretty obvious that the vast majority of those that do have accounts have them in Lebanon. The government tends to turn a blind eye because if Syrians are to have overseas bank accounts, the authorities would much rather they had them in Lebanon than anywhere else.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||