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Like many people in disaster-stricken Lebanon, Elias Skaff used to wait hours to withdraw money from the financial institution, but now he prefers fund transfer groups, as trust in lenders has evaporated.
Anyone who relies on traditional banks to get their money “will die 100 times sooner than if they cash it in,” said de Skaff, 50, who survived Lebanon’s three-year financial crisis with the help of US dollar funds from a relative on another continent.
Once the mainstay of Lebanon's economic system, the banking sector is now widely despised and avoided after banks prevented depositors from accessing their discount rates, stopped granting loans, closed hundreds of branches, and cut many jobs.
Last month, a local became widely hailed as a folk hero after he stormed a Beirut financial institution with a rifle and held employees and customers hostage for hours to demand some of his US$200,000 in frozen savings to pay for his ailing father's medical expenses. .
Increasingly, as Lebanon's profound disaster shows no sign of abating, money transfer companies are filling the gap, also offering currency exchange, credit card and tax collection services, and even setting up wedding gift registries.
Skaff said he now receives his funds through a Beirut branch of Western Union's Lebanese agent, OMT, which says it operates more than 1,200 agencies nationwide and handles eighty percent of Lebanese banking sector fund transfers.
“We created resources similar to those that banks provide at the request of our valued clientele,” said OMT spokesperson Naji Abou Zeid.
Lebanon has been hit by its worst economic disaster since the monetary sector collapsed in 2019. Local foreign currency has lost more than ninety percent of its value on the black market, as poverty and unemployment have increased.
Angry protesters have regularly targeted banks, destroying their ATMs with rocks and spray cans.
“We can’t even withdraw a cent” from the bank, pointed out Alaa Sheikhani, aged 45 to 12 months, a customer in line at an OMT branch.
“"How can we speculate and trust them with our money?"”
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Elie, 36, who recently got married, said he used funds from Whish, a Lebanese money transfer company, to set up his wedding gift registry, which he said saved time, hassle, and expenses for wedding guests.
“Instead of waiting hours at the financial institution, which is regularly crowded, they can hand over the funds to a branch,” said the person who asked not to be fully identified. “In terms of saving time and fees, it’s not incomparable.”
Wish Cash's marketing director, Dina Daher, referred to the company as profitable for its clients by charging "zero fees" on transfers in Lebanese pounds.
Some companies are even paying salaries through money transfer organizations as an alternative to banks.
“When the crisis began, we were pressured to pay salaries in cash, and it was a waste of time,” because the accountants needed to count large bundles of banknotes, stated Rachelle Bou Nader, human resources manager.
But now his company, sporting goods retailer Mike Activity, can pay its employees via Wish, allowing them to “withdraw their profits seamlessly, in installments and free of charges,” Bou Nader noted.
Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, noted that remittances from the Lebanese diaspora have become critical in helping families cope with the overwhelming economic disaster.
“"Nowadays, a young Lebanese employee living abroad might not hesitate to send US$$ 100 to their fogeys because that amount now makes a difference," he said.
Lebanese banks have greatly improved the costs of the few services they still offer – along with foreign money transfers, now their biggest source of profit – said Nader, who added that this has further fueled the exodus to money transfer companies.
Around 250,000 residents of Lebanon purchased remittances in the first half of 2022, according to the UNWTO, an increase of eight percent compared to the same period last year.
The kingdom's financial institution stated that Lebanon purchased US$6.6 billion in remittances in 2021, one of the highest levels in East-Central and North Africa.
