The Lebanese Cabinet approved during its meeting held on Thursday September 7, 2023 a resolution by the financial authorities to replace BDL’s Sayrafa platform by a new currency exchange platform through Bloomberg. The Caretaker Information Minister Mr. Ziad Makari mentioned that the new currency exchange platform will become operational once the resolution is published in the official gazette. It is worth noting that the Sayrafa platform was incorporated in May 2021 and was seen as a tool for BDL to attempt to curb the depreciation of the Lebanese Pound against the US Dollar. More specifically, the decision to phase out the Sayrafa patform came out over concerns by Lebanese authorities and international institutions regarding the lack of transparency & governance and for the arbitrage opportunities it created especially when the gap between the Sayrafa and parallel market rates grew wider. In a related note, it is worth mentioning that the World Bank estimated the gains resulting from arbitrage opportunities on the Sayrafa platform at around $2.5 billion.