Word: intra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Enemies. Understandably, angry Lebanese have been anxious to know how it all happened, and by last week it was possible to piece together, with the mortar of some conjecture, the pattern of failure. Intra's power had made for the bank and its chairman, Yusif Bedas, some powerful enemies. And in a series of separate acts that built a devastating chain, they broke the bank...
Britain moved first. Unhappy over Bedas' refusal to buy British Aircraft VC10s for Intra-owned Middle East Airlines (MEA), Whitehall pressured Kuwait into transferring funds away from Intra and into Britain to shore up the pound. Then the government of France, which owns 15% of MEA, covets the rest, and doesn't like pro-American Bedas in any case, blocked an Intra bid to build a seriously needed new European headquarters in Paris. Next Russia, always glad to oblige in such matters, had its Narodny Bank withdraw the $5,000,000 it had deposited with Intra. Narodny staffers...
...Intra's trouble was still far from hopeless, but the smell of blood was in the financial air. Pro-Saudi Arabian politicians in Lebanon cited leftist newspaper attacks on King Feisal to persuade some Saudis to make immense withdrawals. Attempting to head off an acute crisis, Bedas went to the government's Central Bank for a loan. There he ran up against old foes, and the loan was refused. Word of the refusal soon reached the leaders of Lebanon's bank employee union, who disliked Bedas for keeping the union out of Intra with high salaries. With...
Downed Cow. Apparently aware of what was going on, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Abdullah Yaffi summoned Acting Intra Chairman Najib Salha and asked whether he could personally guarantee Intra's balance sheets. He said he would check, but when he returned to the meeting with an affirmative answer, he was barred forcibly by an armed guard. While he futilely shouted protests from outside, the Cabinet adjourned without the guarantee. The next morning the bank was broken...
...perhaps not permanently. The other banks, at first joyous at the collapse of their big rival, now feel that only the reopening of Intra will bring back confidence in Lebanon's key banking industry. A recent government-commissioned report by Lebanese financial experts pegs Intra's assets at only $8,000,000 less than its liabilities, a relatively small sum that the bank directors themselves could make up out of their pockets. Bedas, who was out of the country when the crisis struck, has stayed out, but has been scouring the U.S. and other financial markets, where...