Lebanon’s push to secure a long‑awaited rescue deal with the International Monetary Fund is faltering, with lawmakers bogged down over keystone legislation meant to quantify multi‑billion‑dollar losses in the financial system and chart how those losses will be shared.

At the heart of the impasse is the so‑called "financial gap law, which presents an accounting framework the IMF regards as essential to any bailout. The draft has yet to be written, Annahar newspaper reported, with insiders saying it cannot proceed until Parliament passes a separate banking reform bill now under scrutiny in the Finance and Budget Committee.

Finance Minister Yassine Jaber told Annahar the ministry is ready to draft the gap law, but only after the Central Bank supplies the granular balance‑sheet data auditors need to tally losses.

“The amended banking secrecy law gives the Central Bank and the Banking Control Commission access to accounts for precisely this purpose,” Jaber said. “The banking reform bill is the second tool. Together they let us restructure banks and pin down the real losses so responsibilities can be assigned.”

The bottom line, according to Jaber: time is running out.

“The IMF wants a credible loss figure,” he said. “Until we pass the reform bill and extract the data, we cannot produce it, and the entire recovery plan remains on hold.”

“We will move once the Central Bank delivers complete data,” he said, adding that any rushed formula “wouldn’t be fair or just to depositors.”

The IMF has pressed Lebanon to accelerate the gap law, but political gridlock is widening. Key regulatory posts — four Central Bank vice‑governors and seats on the Banking Control Commission — remain vacant amid factional squabbling over nominees. Without those appointments, officials say the Central Bank cannot supply the detailed asset‑and‑liability snapshots lawmakers require.

Election fever is also diverting attention. With 2026 parliamentary elections looming ahead, local parties are wary of endorsing tough measures that could alienate voters, particularly millions of Lebanese whose savings remain trapped in local banks since the 2019 financial crash.

Analysts warn the legislative logjam threatens to postpone any IMF staff‑level agreement well into next year; a delay that would prolong currency volatility and deepen the nation’s recession. The Lebanese pound has lost more than 98 percent of its pre‑crisis value, and banks still impose informal capital controls, rationing dollar withdrawals.

For the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese with life savings stranded in shuttered bank accounts, that means one thing above all: more waiting.