BEIRUT, September 2, 2026 — Lebanon’s central bank has selected France-based consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal to conduct a new audit covering more than four years of the bank’s financial transactions.
The audit will examine transactions from October 1, 2019, to December 31, 2023, including the central bank’s foreign assets, financial transfers to the public sector, fuel-import letters of credit and government subsidies for basic goods.
Lebanon’s financial system collapsed in October 2019 following years of heavy government spending and financial mismanagement. The crisis led banks to impose capital controls and restrict depositors’ access to their savings.
Alvarez & Marsal previously conducted an audit of the central bank’s transactions between 2015 and 2020. Its 2023 report identified what it described as misconduct at the institution during the tenure of former governor Riad Salameh.
Salameh is currently under investigation in Lebanon and several other countries over alleged financial crimes, including illicit enrichment. He has denied wrongdoing.
The latest audit is also expected to examine the central bank’s role in Lebanon’s subsidy programme, which continued even as the country’s foreign reserves declined. Fuel subsidies alone reportedly cost the government around $3 billion annually before the programme was effectively ended in August 2021.
The central bank said Alvarez & Marsal was chosen following a competitive tendering process.
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