Libyan Central Bank to Issue Foreign Bank Licenses

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Libya’s central bank plans to issue two licenses for foreign banks to set up units in the country as the holder of African’s largest crude oil reserves seeks to reduce the state’s role in the economy.

Foreign banks will have full management control of the new lenders and a 49 percent stake, the Tripoli-based central bank said in an e-mailed statement today. The remaining 51 percent will be held by domestic investors.

“It is an extremely positive step for the development of the Libyan economy and should help boost bank lending, which has already been expanding rapidly in recent years,” Rory Fyfe, a London-based analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said by e-mail today.