Lebanon Names Ex-HSBC Banker Souaid as Central Bank Governor

(Bloomberg) — Lebanon selected Karim Souaid as central bank governor, picking a private-sector finance specialist to lead a long-delayed overhaul of the financial sector and kickstart an economic recovery. 

Seventeen ministers out of the 24-member cabinet voted to name Souaid, a break with the traditional way of naming candidates for such a high-ranking post. Lebanon’s various political factions used to seek consensus on a nominee before placing an appointment on the cabinet’s agenda. 

Speaking after the government session, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had his reservations about naming Souaid and urged the new governor to commit to the cabinet’s mission statement to protect depositors money and engage with the International Monetary Fund for a new loan program. 

Souaid is a founder of Dubai-based private equity firm Growthgate Partners, and previously worked as a managing director of global investment banking at HSBC Holdings Plc in the Middle East. He’s led privatization mandates in Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Jordan, according to Growthgate’s website. 

Souaid becomes only Lebanon’s second central bank governor in more than three decades, after Riad Salameh held the position for four terms from 1993 to 2023. Salameh was a constant throughout the country’s many political and financial crises and maintained a US-dollar peg during his lengthy run. 

That all changed in 2019, when Lebanon’s exchange rate unraveled and local lenders and the central bank were propelled to the forefront of the country’s worst financial crisis. Inflation hit triple digits and people lost their life-savings as banks imposed de-facto capital controls on dollar withdrawals. 

Previous Lebanese governments have suggested banks need to cough up billions to repay their customers, while lenders insist that recovering deposits should be the sole responsibility of the state. But before that can happen, the IMF has said Lebanon should carry out a bank-by-bank assessment to better understand the deficit in the financial sector and unlock a loan program.

Lebanon defaulted on some $30 billion of international bonds in 2020 at the height of its financial meltdown, when inflows started dwindling and confidence in the country’s ability to repay debt plummeted.

Authorities will need to hold talks with bondholders over the defaulted debt. The central bank holds $5 billion of Eurobonds and Lebanese lenders hold another $3 billion, down from about $15 billion at the start of the crisis. 

Lebanon has seen an unlikely political turnaround this year after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that’s based in the country. The severe weakening of the US-designated terrorist organization helped lawmakers overcome years of disagreements to appoint a president, prime minister and a new cabinet.

The progress has spurred a 37% rally in the country’s defaulted bonds since Jan. 1, on top of a 114% surge in 2024, most of which occurred after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November. 

A member of the New York State Bar Association, Souaid holds a law degree from Lebanon’s St. Joseph University and a Master’s in Law from Harvard Law School. 

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