Elias Skaff used to wait hours at the bank to pocket remittances he needs to survive, so he turned to money transfer companies instead -- a flourishing sector after Lebanon's economy collapsed. Once the flagship of the country's economy, Lebanese banks have largely locked depositors out of their life savings, slashed thousands of jobs, closed hundreds of branches and stopped offering loans since the financial sector went into meltdown in 2019. The local currency -- long fixed at an unrealistic level against the dollar -- has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market as inflation, unemployment and poverty soar. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES