BEIRUT: Lebanon announced on Friday that money changers and transfer companies must comply with stricter rules as the country faces heavy US pressure to regulate its cash economy and cut off Hezbollah funding.
The move comes days after a visiting US official said his country was determined to cut off Tehran’s funding to the group, and after the US Treasury said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had transferred over $1 billion to Hezbollah this year, mainly via money exchange companies.
Lebanese authorities are seeking to disarm Hezbollah, which was badly weakened in a recent war with Israel, and face heavy US pressure to do so more quickly as well as fears of expanded Israeli military action.
As part of efforts “to remove Lebanon from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list... the central bank of Lebanon today has taken the first step in a series of precautionary measures aiming to strengthen the compliance environment within the financial sector,” a central bank statement said.
The FATF in October last year added Lebanon to its “grey list” of nations that are subject to increased monitoring of financial transactions.
