The Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB), now defunct, was a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

based in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

, which maintained a network of 35 branches in Lebanon and a representative office in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

, Canada. The bank was established in 1960 as Banque des Activities Economiques SAL and was a subsidiary of the

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000& ...

Middle East from 1968 to 1988, when it became a privately owned Lebanese bank. LCB provided corporate, retail, and investment products, and maintained extensive correspondent accounts with banks worldwide, including several U.S. financial institutions. In 2009, LCB's total assets were worth more than $5 billion. In 2011, the US

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

and

US Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and th ...

and other US government authorities took legal action against LCB alleging that LCB had helped launder hundreds of millions of dollars monthly for a drug trafficking network between South America and the Middle East and Europe, via West Africa, a network which also helped the

funding of Hezbollah The funding of Hezbollah comes from Lebanese business groups, private persons, businessmen, the Lebanese diaspora involved in African diamond exploration, other Islamic groups and countries, and the taxes paid by the Shia Lebanese. Hezbollah says ...

and other

terrorist organization A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...

s and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

for the narcotics community. Hezbollah denied these claims. The US Treasury Department banned LCB from dealing in dollars, resulting in a merger of the bank with the Lebanese subsidiary of Société Générale bank. In 2013, LCB agreed to pay $102 million in settlement of the action. On July 11, 2008,

American Express Bank American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation specialized in payment card industry, payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Man ...

and the Lebanese Canadian Bank was sued, in New York, for being the correspondent bank to the Yousser Company for Finance and Investment and the

Martyrs Foundation The Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs ( fa, بنیاد شهید و امور ایثارگران ''Bonyad Shahid va Omur-e Ithargaran'') is an Iranian foundation that receives its funding directly from the national budget. Amir-Hossein Gha ...

. In addition, Canadian citizens filed the first civil action against the Lebanese Canadian Bank as victims of Hezbollah rocket attacks in a Canadian court. On 3 March 2011 it was announced that LCB was to merge with French bank

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...

.Karouny, Mariam.
Lebanon's LCB to merge with Societe Generale unit
, Reuters website, 3 March 2011. (Retrieved 10 July 2016). The sale was effected by a transfer of most of the bank's assets to the Lebanese subsidiary of Société Générale,O’Neill, Dominic,

, ''Euromoney'', April 2015. (Retrieved 10 July 2015). Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL).

References

{{Reflist Banks established in 1960 Banks disestablished in 2013 Defunct banks of Lebanon 2013 disestablishments in Lebanon 1960 establishments in Lebanon Companies based in Beirut

See also

References