Govt. agrees to replacing Sayrafa platform with Bloomberg-based one

The caretaker Cabinet on Thursday approved a decision by the country’s financial authorities to replace the Sayrafa currency exchange platform with one based on the international Bloomberg platform.

Asked whether the new platform “has been requested by the international community,” caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari told reporters that no such move has been requested from Lebanon.

“It will replace the Sayrafa platform and it had to go through Cabinet,” he clarified.

Asked when the new platform will become operational, Makari said: “When the resolution is issued” in the official gazette.

Acting central bank governor Wassim Mansouri has said that “the platform will be through Bloomberg’s own trading platform.”

The central bank currently has its own exchange platform, known as Sayrafa, which it said it would be phasing out after concerns about transparency and unsustainability.