Chairman of the Board - CEO of Bank of Beirut Dr. Salim Sfeir highlighted the need for expanding the economy and removing the obstacles through policies that help provide liquidity, stimulate and protect investments in national industries, restore confidence, improve risk levels, reduce interest rates on lending and reactivate the real estate sector. 

These statements came in the context of a press conference held by Sfeir in the presence of the Secretary General of the Union of Arab Banks Wissam Fattouh, the President of the Lebanese Press Syndicate Aouni al-Kaaki, the President of Lebanon's Syndicate of Editors Joseph Kossaifi and a number of representatives and delegates from local, regional and international media.

Nevertheless Sfeir confirmed his optimism and faith in the monetary, banking and financial situation, underlining that any request from banks to cooperate and participate in reducing the burden of debt must be objective and voluntary and in coordination with the Association of Banks and the Central Bank of Lebanon, otherwise Lebanon's credit rating will be negatively affected.

He also assured that the banks have never refrained from backing up the State and paid 2 billion dollars in taxes in 2018, but the burden of double taxation imposed since 2017 contributed to the drop in the revenues of banks. The tax rate that approached 40% coupled with a tax of 10% on distribution implies that insisting on raising the tax rate to 10% will raise the actual tax to 50% and even more, compared to 17% on other sectors; this tax may reach more than 75% on small and medium-size banks, which threatens their continuity, while they are well needed for the national economy.