Salwa Baalbaki wrote in “An-Nahar”: With the expiration of Circulars 158 and 166 approaching at the end of next June, a wave of speculation and controversy has escalated in recent days regarding the possibility of stopping them or amending their conditions, especially after the Bank of Lebanon issued a detailed statement explaining the backgrounds for resorting to the two circulars and the figures for benefiting from them, without directly resolving the issue of extension. This ambiguity opened the door to wide questions among depositors, for whom withdrawals have become almost the only source of liquidity in light of the continuing banking crisis and the absence of any final plan to return deposits.

However, data from sources following up on the file confirm that the Bank of Lebanon has decided on its choice to extend the implementation of the two circulars for an additional year, while maintaining the same current mechanism, which means the continuation of monthly withdrawals in cash dollars, but without any increase in the value of the monthly payments. According to the same sources, the extension will not be through issuing a completely new circular, but rather through extending the work of the two existing circulars under almost the same conditions, in light of the continuing difficult financial and monetary conditions and the lack of comprehensive solutions to the banking crisis so far.
According to the current trend, the beneficiary who receives a thousand dollars a month under Circular 158 will continue to receive the same amount for an additional year starting from July 2026 and extending until July 2027.
The same applies to Circular 166, as it is being discussed to raise the benefit ceiling from $10,000 to $16,000, with the aim of ensuring the continuity of withdrawals during the new extension phase. The number of beneficiaries of the two circulars until the end of March 2026 amounted to about 578,770, while 266,166 depositors were able to recover their entire deposits in the subsidiary private accounts, i.e. 46% of the total beneficiaries.
As for the total number of applications submitted, it amounted to 610,624 applications, and the total payments since the start of the two circulars reached 6.109 billion dollars until the end of March 2026.

Thus, the Bank of Lebanon contributed $4.183 billion of these payments, or 68.46%, while the banks’ contribution amounted to $1.926 billion, or 31.54%.
According to the Bank of Lebanon, all depositors who benefited from the beginning of Circular 158 and whose deposits were equal to or less than $40,200 were able to recover their savings in full until the end of April 2026.