By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 20 March 2013:
The Central Bank of Libya has denied a number of stories being reported by various media . . .[restrict]outlets that it had issued licences to foreign banks to operate independently in Libya.
In a statement released today, the bank stress stressed that any licences issued to any foreign banks to operate in Libya had to be in partnership with a Libyan bank.
The Central Bank, the sole authority responsible for issuing licences to foreign banks to operate in Libya, also denied media rumours that it plans to sell the National Commercial Bank (NCB) to Bahrain’s Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) or that it has made a decision to specifically bar any Egyptian banks temporarily from bidding for operating licences in Libya.
Four days ago, three organisations – the National Labor Organisation for the Protection of the Revolution and the Fight against Corruption, the Supreme Commission of Labour for Libya and the NCB branch of the 17 February Revolutionaries Association — issued a statement saying they rejected the decision made by the Libyan Central Bank to sell 74 percent of NCB’s shares to ABC.
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