Bank offers plastic surgery loans

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Lebanese bank is offering loans to finance plastic surgery to meet growing demand from people seeking to improve their looks.

First National Bank's "Plastic Surgery Loan" can provide between $1,000 and $5,000 to cover "all your plastic surgery operations and orthodontics," according to the bank's Web site. "Today you can have the life you've always wanted," it says.

"Statistical studies showed that there is a huge increase in this sphere -- in beautification surgery," George Nasr, the bank's marketing manager, told Reuters. "This opens horizons."

Clients included people disfigured by accidents and war and others simply looking to improve the way they look, he said. The bank has received more than 200 phone calls a day about the loan since the launch of an advertising campaign last week.

Nasr described looking good as part of Lebanese culture. "We like to look our best ... There are people who see this loan as their life raft," he said.