¤The Banque du Liban "financial engineering"

From 2016 the governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, launched what were called the "financial engineerings": swaps giving the banks exceptional returns in exchange for depositing their dollars with the central bank, in order to raise the reserves, hold the lira's rate and attract deposits with high interest. The system lasted as long as new dollar inflows lasted, draining the reserves while the balance sheet showed a sound position through misleading accounting; a World Bank report in August 2022 called it a "Ponzi scheme", and the Peterson Institute estimated the central bank's currency gap at about 72 billion dollars. Salameh denies any wrongdoing and says he is a "scapegoat".