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BDL Asks Local Banks To Implement Student Dollar Law
Lebanon’s Central Bank has released a circular asking local banks to implement the student dollar law and allow students to transfer money abroad to cover their tuition fees and living expenses. He also called on the Association of Banks to build a regulatory platform to prevent multiple transfers per student from different banks.
The student dollar law was issued by the parliament in October 2020 and aimed to oblige banks to allow for a yearly $10,000 transfer for Lebanese students studying abroad and who had been enrolled before 2020-2021.
The student dollar law was supposed to go into effect upon being published in the official paper, but nearly two months later, parents are still protesting in front of the Central Bank against their inability to transfer their own money to cover their children’s expenses abroad.
They had repetitively requested to meet with BDL Governor Riad Salameh who refused to do so.
Local banks on the other hand explain that they do not have enough capital to facilitate these transfers as Lebanon sinks into its worst economic crisis to date.
So with their money holed up in the banks and tuition fees soaring in Lebanon’s private universities as they adopt the 3,900 LL dollar rate, Lebanese students’ education is on the line.
You can read the full circular here.
The student dollar law was issued by the parliament in October 2020 and aimed to oblige banks to allow for a yearly $10,000 transfer for Lebanese students studying abroad and who had been enrolled before 2020-2021.
Happening now: the Lebanese Association for Parents of Students in Foreign Universities has gathered in front of the Central Bank in protest of policies that left students abroad stranded with no tuitions or living expenses. #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/itg3H1FMPn
— Beirut.com (@BeirutCityGuide) November 3, 2020
The student dollar law was supposed to go into effect upon being published in the official paper, but nearly two months later, parents are still protesting in front of the Central Bank against their inability to transfer their own money to cover their children’s expenses abroad.
They had repetitively requested to meet with BDL Governor Riad Salameh who refused to do so.
Local banks on the other hand explain that they do not have enough capital to facilitate these transfers as Lebanon sinks into its worst economic crisis to date.
So with their money holed up in the banks and tuition fees soaring in Lebanon’s private universities as they adopt the 3,900 LL dollar rate, Lebanese students’ education is on the line.
You can read the full circular here.