Central Bank Circular No. 761

To financial institutions, exchange houses, money transfer companies, and electronic payment service providers.

We enclose a copy of Central Bank Decision No. 13815 dated May 4, 2026, amending Basic Decision No. 13769 dated November 14, 2025, concerning the Know Your Customer (KYC) Form for Currency and Foreign Exchange Transactions, subject of Basic Circular No. 3 for Financial Institutions.

Beirut, May 4, 2026
Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon
Karim Saeed

Central Bank Decision No. 13815

Amending Basic Decision No. 13769 dated November 14, 2025, concerning the Know Your Customer (KYC) Form for Currency and Foreign Exchange Transactions

The Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon,
Pursuant to the Monetary and Exchange Law, particularly Articles 70 and 174 thereof; Pursuant to Law No. 133 dated October 26, 1999, concerning the duties of the Central Bank; Pursuant to Basic Decision No. 13769 dated November 14, 2025, concerning the Know Your Customer (KYC) Form for Currency and Foreign Exchange Transactions; Pursuant to the decision of the Central Bank Council taken in its session held on April 29, 2026;

Decrees as follows:

Article One: The title of Basic Decision No. 13769 dated November 14, 2025, is repealed and replaced with the following:
"Know Your Customer (KYC) Form for 'Currency Transactions'."

Article Two: Articles (1) to (7) of Basic Decision No. 13769 dated November 14, 2025, are repealed. Information No. 975 dated February 10, 2026, is repealed. All attached appendices to them are repealed and replaced with the following:

"Article One: Definitions
For the purpose of applying the provisions of this circular, the following terms are understood as follows:

• "Non-bank financial institutions": Financial institutions, exchange houses, money transfer companies, and electronic payment service providers subject to the supervision of the Central Bank.
• "Currency transactions": Any deposit, withdrawal, payment, or receipt of a cash amount equal to or exceeding USD 1,000 by a natural or legal person (e.g., e-money, electronic money transfer, exchange, cash collection).

Article Two: Scope of Application
In accordance with prevailing regulations, instructions issued by the Central Bank, and international standards related to combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and to prevent misuse of the licensed financial system in suspicious or high-risk operations (High Risk Operations), "non-bank financial institutions" must:

1. Collect information and data related to their clients and operations, verify its accuracy, record it, and store it systematically.
2. Implement and apply effective policies and procedures to detect non-compliant or suspicious operations, particularly repeated operations suspected of aiming to avoid the "currency transactions" threshold.

Article Three: Monitoring of Operations
"Non-bank financial institutions" must adhere to the following:

1. Adopt a threshold of USD 1,000 or its equivalent on a transactional basis for each "currency transaction".
2. Detect repeated operations that may aim to avoid the specified threshold and take necessary actions to identify and handle them.
3. Comply with adopted anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) policies and procedures, and fulfill the obligation to report suspicious operations in accordance with prevailing regulations.

Article Four: The Forms and Their Filling Mechanism "Non-bank financial institutions" adopting the two forms for "currency transactions" must adhere to the following:

1. Fill Form A1-RF when executing any "currency transaction" equal to or exceeding USD 1,000 or its equivalent. This form is filled by the concerned client once and updated periodically according to the risk classification of the client, not exceeding 5 years for any client.
2. Fill Form B1-RF when executing any "currency transaction" equal to or exceeding USD 1,000 or its equivalent, on a per-transaction basis, except for cash withdrawals. These forms are kept for no less than 5 years.
3. Both Form A1-RF and Form B1-RF are manually signed by both the client and the institution.
4. Form A1-RF and Form B1-RF may be electronically signed by natural person clients, in accordance with the electronic signing conditions stipulated in Basic Decision No. 13790 dated January 9, 2026, and Basic Decision No. 7548 dated March 30, 2000, provided that the value of the "currency transaction" or the sum of repeated operations for a single client in the concerned institution within one month does not exceed USD 10,000.

Article Five: Identity Verification and Determination of Source of Funds "Non-bank financial institutions" must adhere to the following:

1. Verify the client's identity in each "currency transaction" and keep a valid copy of an identification document bearing their photograph.
2. Update the document upon its expiry.
3. Determine the source of funds without obligating the client to provide supporting documents for the forms, unless:
   • The value of the "currency transaction" or the sum of repeated operations for a single client at the concerned institution is equal to or exceeds USD 10,000 monthly.
   • Doubts arise regarding the "currency transaction" or if the nature of the operation does not align with the information provided in Form A1-RF.

Article Six: Record Keeping and Reporting
"Non-bank financial institutions" must adhere to the following:

1. Safely keep all information and documents related to "currency transactions" for no less than 5 years.
2. Send daily reports (a separate report per day) to the Central Bank via email (lb.gov.bdl@1rf-curr-fx) within a period not exceeding one working day, using the attached template (Daily Operations Report) prepared in Excel format and available at the following link: Click to download.

Article Seven: Penalties
Any person violating the provisions of this decision is subject to the administrative penalties stipulated in Article 208 of the Monetary and Exchange Law. Additionally, a daily delay fine in US dollars, determined by the Central Bank Council, is applied to the violating institution. Furthermore, violation of this Basic Decision also constitutes a crime under Article 770 of the Penal Code, and the Central Bank may pursue any violating institution before the competent judicial authority.

Article Three: This decision takes effect from June 30, 2026.
Article Four: This decision is published in the Official Gazette.

Beirut, May 4, 2026
Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon
Karim Saeed

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Form A1-RF
First: Information about the Non-Bank Financial Institution

• Name:
• Address:
• Phone Number:
• Contact Officer's Name:
• Registration No. / License Decision:
• Tax ID:

Second: Information about the Client (if a natural person)

• Full Name:
• Mother's Name and Initials:
• Gender:
• Date of Birth:
• Place of Birth:
• ID Place and Number:
• Nationality:
• Any other nationality:
• Marital Status (Single/Married/Divorced/Widowed):
• Spouse's Name and Initials:
• Country of Residence:
• Full Residential Address (City/District/Street/Building Name/Floor) and Phone Number:
• Job/Profession:
• Rank:
• Workplace (Company Name):
• Full Work Address and Phone Number:
• Annual Salary or Income:
• Any other income sources:
• Confirmation of the following:
  That they have not been convicted in the last ten years for any ordinary crime, theft, fraud, or misdemeanor subject to fraud/embezzlement penalties or issuing bad checks without sufficient funds, or concealing proceeds from these violations. That they have no ties (residence, work, or any activity/income source) to any high-risk country according to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) classification (Iran, North Korea, Myanmar).

Third: Information about the Client (if a legal person)

• Company Name:
• Registration Date:
• Place of Registration:
• Commercial Address:
  • Building:
  • Street:
  • Landmark:
  • Town/City:
• Postal Code:
• Country:
• Tax Residency:
• Tax ID Number:
• Commercial Registration No.:
• Phone Number:
• Email:
• Company Website (optional):
• Legal Form of the Entity (e.g., Joint Stock Company, Limited Liability Company, Sole Proprietorship, Partnership):
• Nature of Commercial Activity / Sector Classification:
• Expected Annual Cash Flows: Less than USD 20,000.
  Between USD 20,000 and USD 100,000.
  Between USD 100,000 and USD 500,000.
  Between USD 500,000 and USD 1,000,000.
  Between USD 1,000,000 and USD 5,000,000.
  Between USD 5,000,000 and USD 25,000,000.
  More than USD 25,000,000.
• Frequency of Expected Transactions (Once/Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Other):
• Average Expected Amount per Transaction:
• Expected Annual Cash Activity (estimated):
• Information about the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO)
  • Name:
  • Initials:
  • Father's Name:
  • Mother's Name and Initials:
  • Gender:
  • Date of Birth:
  • Place of Birth:
  • Nationality:
  • Registration No.:
  • Registration Place:
  • ID Card / Passport Number:
  • Resident in Lebanon (Yes/No):
  • Residential Address:
  • Ownership Percentage:

Signature:

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Form B1-RF
Information about the Currency Transaction

• Amount:
• Currency:
• Source:
  • Salary
  • Business Revenue
  • Sale of Assets/Property
  • Loan
  • Other Source (specified)
• Purpose of Transaction:
• How Funds are Brought:
  • By the Individual
  • Other Means (specified)
• Are Funds Imported?
  • If yes, from which country?

Signature: