The Bank of Lebanon is the central bank. Its general assignment is to safeguard and stabilize the national currency for maintaining continuous economic and social development. Its other functions are to safeguard the sane character of the banking system and to develop a monetary and finance market.

The listed banks are on the list of the Bank of Lebanon and include:

* The commercial banks (whose principal activity is to grant credit and to receive deposits) and

* The banks of long and medium term credits (which cannot grant credits or receive deposits for less than two years).

Lebanon has 82 listed banks, comprising 67 commercial banks, 12 foreign banks, and 13 banks of long and medium term credits.

The expansion of the banks in Lebanon is the fruit of a long evolution stimulated by the conjunction of favorable external factors and non-common characteristics, including freedom of exchange and repatriation of capital, a law instituting absolute bank secrecy, possibility of opening a numbered account, possibility to open a joint account, and a banking free zone established in 1977.