Report: Three of BDL's vice-governors will not resign, Mansouri under pressure

Three of the Central Bank vice-governors will not resign, while the first vice-governor Wassim Mansouri is being pressured to resign, informed sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

The sources added, in remarks published Friday, that a legislative session might be held to provide a legal cover for the vice-governors to spend from the obligatory reserves for a three-month period.

On Thursday, Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told reporters that everyone should have the needed "awareness" to find a way to secure the temporary loan to maintain financial stability.

Lebanon, which has no president and is ruled by a caretaker government, might also have to go without a central bank chief, if no successor is named for the embattled bank governor, Riad Salameh, 73, who steps down after three decades at the helm at the end of July.

A Cabinet session to appoint a new Central Bank governor was canceled Thursday due to a lack of quorum.

Lebanon's central bank governor is named by cabinet decree for a six-year mandate that can be renewed multiple times. If the position is vacant, the law stipulates that the first vice-governor take over.

The vice-governors had warned that they might resign unless politicians swiftly name an incoming governor. They later presented a financial plan to MPs and to cabinet, asking for the government and parliament's support to continue their work.

"If the first vice-governor resigns, the second vice-governor should take over," Mikati said Thursday.

In case all four vice-governors decide to resign, they would act in caretaker capacity until the appointment of a new governor.