By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 17 August 2015:
The Central Bank of Libya (CBL) has announced that it has create a compliance unit . . .[restrict]within its internal organization.
The unit would ensure the adherence of its staff and departments to banking compliance operational regulations and laws including international standards, the CBL stated.
The aim is also to protect the CBL against liability and risks caused by non-compliance as well as the compliance of the CBL’s Anti –Money-Laundering Department as well as compliance by local banks.
It will be recalled that the CBL has been coming under increasing public pressure to fight corruption in the banking sector.
The weak condition of the Libyan state post the 2011 revolutionary has meant that there are weak institution including the compliance of the banking sector to high standards of procedures and processes.
This move seems to continue a trend for the CBL and the Audit Bureau that is struggling in a difficult Libyan governance environment to fight corruption in the fair distribution of foreign exchange through local banks as well as the opening of fake LCs.
The increased and often illegal struggle to gain access to foreign exchange comes on the back of Libya’s struggling economy caused by decreased oil production and a crash in international crude oil prices which has led to the fast depreciation of Libya’s foreign currency reserves.
This increasing scarcity of foreign currency in the Libyan market has led to the black market exchange rate skyrocketing from around LD 1.30 to LD 2.50 per one US dollar over the last year. [/restrict]
