Alaa Kharchib of the Depositors' Outcry Association that had organised the demonstration warned of an impending "social explosion".
"No one trusts our corrupt officials or the central bank governor," Kharchib told AFP.
Lebanese banks have imposed draconian restrictions on withdrawals since the country's economy collapsed three years ago, essentially cutting off people from their savings and prompting public anger.
Dozens of protesters gathered Wednesday near the central bank headquarters amid heavy deployment of security forces, AFP correspondents said.
Protesters rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud lambasting long-time central bank governor Riad Salameh
...Governor of Lebanon'scentral bank, Banque du Liban since April 1993. Salameh was appointed Governor by decree, approved by the Council of Ministers for a renewable term of six years. He was reappointed for four consecutive terms; in 1999, 2005, 2011 and 2017. Salameh chairs the Banque du Liban Central Council, the Higher Banking Commission, the AML/CFT Special Investigation Commission and the Capital Markets Authority. Salameh is a member of the board of governors at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and at the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF). Salameh is the longest-serving central bank governor in the world....
, one of several officials widely blamed for
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ...'s economic demise, and burnt images of him.
Salameh is under an international investigation in Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
on suspicions of financial misconduct including money laundering and embezzlement.
Demonstrators held up posters calling Salameh "public enemy number one" and others saying: "We won't go hungry, we'll eat you," taking a jab at the country's ruling elite, the correspondents said.
The Lebanese pound, which had already lost more than 95 percent of its value since 2019, plunged to nearly 56,000 to the U.S. dollar on the parallel market, dealers said.
The main official exchange rate still pegs the pound at 1,507 to the greenback -- its value before the crisis.