«Deep down in the basement of Lebanon's Central bank treasury vaults are full. Cash has been flowing in like never before, Lebanese banks are posting record deposits and bankers say this is the best year in Lebanon's financial history.
According to the country's chief banker all of this is because while the world was shocked when in September the banking giants began to wobble, Lebanon was prepared.
"I saw the crisis coming and I told the commercial banks in 2007 to get out of all international investments related to the international markets", says Riad Salameh, the governor of Lebanon's Central Bank.
There is a tradition of conservative regulation at the Central Bank in Lebanon, which kept the banks safe.
There is a tradition of conservative regulation at the Central Bank in Lebanon, which kept the banks safe.
Banks weren't allowed to take on too much debt and they had to have at least 30% of their assets in cash.
They were not allowed to speculate in risky packages of bundled up debts.
And weak banks were forced to merge with bigger ones before they got into trouble.
"You could have thought they had a crystal ball. It was very wise of the Lebanese regulators not to get involved in all these risky international investments that turned out to be the doom of many banking systems," says Edward Gardner of the International Monetary Fund».
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