The Lebanese Central Bank issued on May 28, 2021 intermediate decision 13331 under intermediate circular 585 addressed to banks and financial institutions by amending article 14 bis. 2 of BDL basic circular 23 (BDL basic decision number 6116). In detail, the provisions of the circular stipulate that banks can resort to the Central Bank to conduct foreign exchange operations to finance 90% of the import bill in foreign currency of raw materials or industrial equipment used by licensed industrial firms for manufacturing. The size of said facilities is capped at the outstanding balance of the aggregate amount of $100 million (or the equivalent amount in another foreign currency) previously specified by BDL intermediate circular 556 issued on May 27, 2020. In addition, the circular specified that the size of each import transaction should not exceed $300,000 or $3,000,000 in the aggregate for each client on all eligible transactions (or the equivalent amount in another foreign currency). Furthermore, the circular stipulated that exporting industrial firms benefiting from the provisions of article 14 bis. 2 should place their foreign currency obtained from the related exports activities in a fresh account at banks in Lebanon. The circular added that clients can benefit from the banking services offered on fresh accounts including transfers abroad, cash withdrawal and banking card services in Lebanon and abroad. Finally, it is worth highlighting that BDL has extended the tenor of article 14 bis. 2 of basic circular 23 (BDL basic decision number 6116) by an additional six months.