IMF wants independent administrators running Lebanese banks during losses assessment, but Beirut is hesitant

The IMF wants to hand most Lebanese banks over to independent administrators while their losses are assessed — and Beirut is pushing back. An IMF delegation led by Mission Chief Ernesto Ramirez Rigo arrived in Beirut this week with the proposal, which has reopened the standoff over Article 4 of the draft financial stabilization and deposit recovery law (the financial gap law), which addresses the process of how and who assess banks’ losses and assets. Nearly 35 hours of discussions have not closed the gap, Lebanese daily L’Orient Le Jour reports.

The IMF’s argument is about who holds the keys to the books. IMF experts think a large share of banks would be insolvent — and some would have negative capital — once losses are recognized and assets properly valued. Leaving the same pre-2019 shareholders and executives in charge of the review would let them shape decisions that affect their own institutions and shareholders. An independent administrator, the Fund argues, would safeguard the assets and give auditors clean access.

Beirut wants a narrower fix and a different order of operations. The Lebanese team has proposed splitting banks into five categories, with administrators appointed only for the two most vulnerable. It also wants “irregular claims,” which BDL Governor Karim Souhaid estimates could be as much as 30% of deposits, examined and stripped out before remaining losses are allocated. The IMF says that would push losses onto depositors before shareholders and subordinated creditors absorb them, inverting the standard hierarchy of claims.

REMEMBER- The Lebanese Parliament passed amendments to the Banking Resolution Law last month, which make the Higher Banking Authority responsible for the due diligence process and already let it appoint temporary administrators — a move the IMF called a “major step” but not enough on its own, citing the delay on the financial gap law. Economists have separately flagged to us that the draft of the financial gap law’s repayment plan numbers are unworkable, and BDL’s own criminal complaints against former private-banking executives — part of a broader anti-corruption sweep climbing the banking establishment — underline why the Fund wants insiders out of the room when the books undergo due diligence.

Say goodbye

Cloud data held in the Gulf can now be permanently lost. AWS says it cannot restore one of its three UAE availability zones or its Bahrain infrastructure after Iranian attacks in March and April, and that resources and data held exclusively in these zones are unrecoverable, Reuters reports. Most customers have re-established operations in other regions from backups, and AWS says it has exhausted every option for the rest. In Bahrain, the damage spanned several zones and “exceeded what our regional and multi-availability zones services are designed to withstand.”

AWS will provide an update on Bahrain in early 2027, but gave no timeline for the UAE.

Atomic wishlist

Syria has told the IAEA where it wants help as it rebuilds. The Syrian Atomic Energy Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency signed a Country Program Framework in Vienna on Wednesday, according to SANA. The framework sets which sectors will get the agency’s technical cooperation funding and nuclear technology transfers through 2031.

The six-year plan covers seven areas: Nuclear and radiation safety, health and nutrition, food and agriculture, energy planning, nuclear knowledge management, industrial applications, and water and the environment.

Cleared for landing?

The UAE is pushing to get itself off international travel advisory lists just as Dubai’s tourism numbers have posted their sharpest rebound since the Iran war began, on the back of a full conference schedule, Bloomberg reports. International overnight visitors to the city hit 869k in August — the highest since February — while hotel occupancy climbed to 66%, up from a war-battered 36% in March, according to government figures released this week.

Lifting the warnings would ease the ins. costs keeping long-haul carriers away, CEO of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing Issam Kazim told Bloomberg at the Arabian Travel Market conference. Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths told the business news service in June that insurers are still struggling to price the region at all. Meanwhile, non-Gulf carriers have absorbed USD 70k to USD 150k in extra charges per flight into the region, the Financial Times reported earlier this year.

The push comes as British Airways finally sets a return date for Dubai: British Airways will resume Dubai flights on 3 November, starting with a single daily service from London before expanding to two flights a day, the airline confirmed. It’s a major milestone for a route that’s been dark since the Iran war grounded most of the sector’s Gulf capacity in late February — but it’s also another setback. The British flag carrier had previously targeted a 25 October comeback since mid-year, following earlier pushbacks from May and July targets.

Data point

43% — that’s how much the number of hotels in Oman rose y-o-y in 2025, ending the year with a total of 1,475 hotels, according to the National Center for Statistics and Information. South Al Batinah had the highest number of hotels across the country at the end of last year with 313 hotels, followed by Muscat (271) and Al Dakhliyah (209). Oman’s hotel revenues rose 22.3% y-o-y in 2025 to OMR 359 mn (USD 933.7 mn).