By Sami Zaptia.
London, 19 April 2021:
The Central Bank of Libya warned that it will impose penalties on Libyan commercial banks that do not adhere to the agreed plan to improve services to customers.
The announcement came after CBL Governor Saddek El-Kaber held a meeting today in his office with the departments of five commercial banks (Jumhuriya – Wehda – Sahara – National Commercial – North Africa).
The meeting was to follow-up on what had been previously agreed upon in a meeting with the general managers of banks.
The liquidity problem
The meeting followed-up on what has been implemented with regards to the liquidity problem with banks reporting that they have started opening all their branches to customers, raising the daily withdrawal ceiling, and providing liquidity on a regular basis.
Security for liquidity distribution
The security difficulties facing banks in transferring currency to all Libyan cities were also examined, and the CBL renewed its readiness to provide full support to banks in this regard.
e-payments, chequebooks and payment of salaries
The Governor urged banks to speed up the process of developing electronic payment mechanisms, provide banking services to customers, and dealing with complaints that customers did not obtain chequebooks from their branches, in addition to urging banks to speed up the transfer of salaries to beneficiaries’ accounts without delay.
Another follow-up meeting next week
At the meeting, it was agreed that a meeting will be held next week to follow up on progress and to ensure that all bank branches provide liquidity to their customers without obstacles, especially after the liquidation of the second instalment of the LD 5 billion loan presented to commercial banks.
