L'Orient Today

An elderly depositor forcibly retrieved part of her funds from a Beirut bank after an unarmed sit-in. The 87-year-old depositor, along with her son and two other people, attempted to forcibly withdraw $20,000 of her own funds from the Bank Audi branch to cover medical expenses. Negotiations between the depositor and bank’s administration ended around 7:30 p.m. with the woman and her son leaving the bank with $5,500. "If we were armed, the bank would have given us the money right away," the depositor’s daughter-in-law speculated to L’Orient Today, decrying that a “sick person” was made to “beg for their own money.” Last Wednesday, only one of three attempts by depositors to retrieve their frozen savings from different banks was successful. Depositors’ access to their foreign currency funds has been limited by banks since 2019. Depositors attempting to forcibly recover their own funds often cite medical expenses as the motive for their holdups. Such holdups became commonplace in September and October, causing banks to heighten security measures.