The head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), Dr. Salim Sfeir, stressed that rebuilding trust was crucial for saving the country and should be the base for any comprehensive recovery plan. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Sfeir underlined the necessity to define the government’s options regarding the priority of pumping fresh liquidity of foreign currencies through external sources, and not relying on the central bank reserves only to meet the urgent financing needs. Admitting that resorting to the International Monetary Fund was inevitable, the ABL chairman noted that at a later stage, the revitalization and acceleration of the CEDRE Conference pledges, which amount to approximately $11.6 billion, should be in the form of soft loans for the benefit of the public and private sectors and for infrastructure projects. This path is the best available solution, as it is now impossible to knock on the doors of traditional regional and international support doors, which Lebanon used to resort to in its previous crises, due to local and external obstacles, according to Sfeir. With the financing gap estimated at between $20 to $25 billion, securing half of this amount or more through a special program with the Fund would give Lebanon a great opportunity to re-correct its overall financial and monetary conditions, the senior banker emphasized. He continued that any external financial support would stipulate that the state implement a comprehensive administrative and financial reform plan, and finally resolve the electricity problem, which costs the country about $2 billion annually. Earlier this week, the ABL addressed a letter through its adviser, Houlihan Lokey, to investment bank Lazard, the Lebanese government’s adviser, expressing concerns about the recent reform plan and its impact on the banking system. Expressing its “disappointment in the government’s approach to this process,” the letter said the government “clearly opted for a strategy... to impose the financial burden for solving the problem on the public (i.e. depositors).”