Buildings in central Beirut bear witness to the passage of time, but few hold the memory of an entire nation within their walls as Banque du Liban does. History leaves its mark on places that remain silent yet tell many stories. Standing in the heart of the capital, the central bank has watched a country move through prosperity and collapse, war and peace, the lira’s strength and its breaking point—while the symbols of one flag, one lira and one central bank endured.
Long before Banque du Liban was created, Lebanon belonged to an Ottoman monetary system managed by the Imperial Ottoman Bank, a European-run institution with a strong French character that conducted financial and banking activity across the empire. Beirut was already a prosperous Mediterranean city, relying on its busy port and serving as a commercial bridge between Europe and the Levant. By the late nineteenth century, it was emerging as a financial center.
The arrival of Allied forces under General Allenby during the First World War began a major monetary transformation. The British administration sought to end the Ottoman currency system and replace it with the Egyptian pound, which was linked to sterling. Ottoman banknotes were banned, creating monetary disorder and distrust that led people—especially in inland areas—to rely on coins for an extended period.
The scene changed again with the start of the French Mandate in 1919. Confronted with a disrupted monetary order, France created the Bank of Syria as a practical successor to the Ottoman bank and authorized it to issue currency in territories under French influence pursuant to the Sykes–Picot arrangement. Its establishment marked the transition from an Ottoman to a French monetary system.
On April 2, 1920, a decree ended circulation of the Egyptian pound and created the Syrian lira, directly linked to the French franc. After Greater Lebanon was proclaimed, the “Lebanese-Syrian lira” was introduced in 1924 within a unified monetary system for Lebanon and Syria. The Bank of Syria and Greater Lebanon managed that system and received the right to issue currency and conduct financial affairs, although it did not function as a central bank in the modern sense.
When the Lebanese Republic was proclaimed in 1926, Beirut became an emerging political and financial capital. The Bank of Syria and Lebanon expanded into the country’s leading financial institution, managing branches and performing public-sector functions while operating as its largest commercial bank. Its concession was later renewed for twenty-five years, from 1939 to 1964, reinforcing its central position in Lebanon and Syria during and after the Mandate.
The 1940s brought decisive monetary changes tied to global and regional political developments. In 1942, the Lebanese lira separated from the French franc, reflecting France’s declining wartime monetary influence and the beginnings of a more autonomous policy. Full separation of the Lebanese and Syrian lira followed in 1948, ending the unified system shared since the 1920s. The Lebanese lira became a fully independent national currency, expressing monetary sovereignty alongside the rise of the modern state.
Despite this evolution, the absence of effective banking laws and supervision left the door open to widespread financial disorder. Any merchant could become a “banker” without a license, reserves or legal oversight, contributing to waves of failures and crises during the 1920s and 1930s whose effects continued into the early independence period.
The need for a genuine national monetary institution grew steadily—one that could regulate the sector, protect the currency and establish long-term financial stability. The idea of Banque du Liban gradually took shape as an independent central bank embodying the state’s monetary sovereignty and responsible for preserving the Lebanese lira. It was formally established in the 1960s and became a major symbol of the modern Lebanese state.
Lebanon’s monetary history is not merely a story of currencies replaced or banks established. It mirrors the country’s and the region’s political and economic transformations. From Ottoman rule to the French Mandate, and from the Egyptian pound to an independent Lebanese lira, Beirut remained at the center of the Levant’s financial order, while Banque du Liban witnessed a full century of Lebanese change.
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