Since the end of the sanctions era, the past five years have witnessed enormous changes in the Libyan economy and a strong determination on the part of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) to build a viable financial sector while diversifying the country's economy. The CBL, well aware of the huge task at hand, but assisted by not only the limited impact of the global financial crisis and Libya's massive oil and gas reserves but also the $139bn that Libya holds in external assets, has embarked on significant structural reforms that are slowly but surely transforming its archaic, state-owned financial system.
As a result of this, Libya is opening up. There are no more 100% publicly owned commercial banks, privatisations are taking place and foreign banks are being encouraged to acquire stakes in private banks. In just a few years, Libya's financial culture has been transformed, and at the time of writing, new banking licences for foreign banks are expected to be announced to further deepen and strengthen the competitiveness of the banking sector.
