A global outage in Microsoft services returned companies and financial institutions to traditional means of communication, after the outage of the Outlook e-mail services, the Teams application, and the artificial intelligence tool Copilot disrupted the work of millions of users in more than 70 countries, and disrupted communication and information exchange within institutions.
Institutions were forced to use phones, fax machines, and Bluetooth technology to conduct their business, while financial companies resorted to confirming transactions via fax instead of e-mail, to avoid disruption to their daily operations.
Euronext Group, which operates a number of European stock exchanges, announced that listed companies were required to communicate by phone, verifying the identities of the callers in order to preserve the confidentiality of the information. Government institutions and health services were also affected, and some medical procedures in Britain were postponed.
Microsoft attributed the malfunction to problems with the servers, confirming that there were no indications of malicious activity, and said that it had begun to monitor a gradual improvement.
The outage highlighted the vulnerability of daily operations to disruptions in digital services.
The International Monetary Fund called on the Lebanese authorities to ensure the maximum possible protection for depositors in the draft financial regulation and deposit recovery law, stressing the need to respect the hierarchy of claims when distributing losses, and to take into account the liquidity conditions of the Bank of Lebanon and the banking sector, in addition to the sustainability of public debt and restoring the solvency of the Central Bank.
Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, head of the Fund's expert mission to Lebanon, said that discussions with the authorities have made progress in clarifying the approaches that the Bank of Lebanon and the government are considering regarding the banking sector restructuring strategy, but there is still work to be done to reach agreement on an effective and sustainable plan.
Ramirez Rigo explained, in a statement issued at the conclusion of the Fund team’s visit to Beirut between November 10 and 13, that the discussions focused on aligning the draft financial regulation and deposit recovery law, currently presented to the House of Representatives, with international standards.
He stressed the importance of applying the law on resolving the conditions of banks in all cases, as it is the basis for establishing a transparent and predictable process for resolving the conditions of troubled banks and liquidating them.
He pointed out that determining the criteria for deposit repayment requires further discussion, to ensure reconciliation between maximizing recoveries to depositors and the ability of the Bank of Lebanon and the banking sector to provide liquidity, while preserving the sustainability of public debt and restoring the solvency of the Central Bank.
The mission affirmed its aspiration to continue the dialogue with the Lebanese authorities during the coming weeks to achieve progress on these files, reiterating the Fund’s commitment to supporting Lebanon in developing and implementing a comprehensive program for economic reform, in accordance with its policies and the mandate granted to it.
The mission's visit was an extension of the discussions that began during the Fund's experts' visit in September, as part of efforts aimed at developing a strategy to restructure the Lebanese banking sector and address the deposit crisis.
The pace of recovery in Gulf oil exports has accelerated, with crude flows recovering 82 percent of their pre-war levels, a development that contributed to changing the International Energy Agency’s expectations of the market’s path, from a deficit to recording a surplus in supply during the last quarter of this year.
The agency expected the global oil market to return to record surplus supply during the last quarter of this year, driven by a faster-than-expected recovery in Gulf oil exports, despite the continued attacks on oil tankers and tensions related to the war on Iran. It expected that average global supplies would reach 105 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter, exceeding demand by about 1.7 million barrels per day, in a shift from its previous expectations that indicated a deficit in the market.
The improvement came with global supplies rising to 105.4 million barrels per day in October, an increase of 2.3 million barrels per day from September, while Gulf oil exports, excluding Oman, reached 18.4 million barrels per day. That is, about 26 percent less than pre-war levels.
On the other hand, the agency expected global demand for oil to decline by 2.7 million barrels per day during 2026, to 102.3 million barrels per day, due to rising prices and supply disruptions. It is also expected that the surplus supply will expand to 3.8 million barrels per day in 2027, with the recovery of Gulf production and an increase in supplies from outside the “OPEC Plus” group.
