UAE supplies additional $19bn to banks

14 October 2008
The UAE will put an additional AED70bn ($19bn) into shoring up its domestic banking sector, adding to a previously announced AED50bn liquidity injection through the central bank.

Details of how the new funds will be distributed to the banking industry have yet to be announced, but it indicates that so far not enough has been done to get the banking sector functioning normally again.

One Dubai-based banker says: “The best way of getting the banking market moving again would be to put more funds on deposit with the banks to get the interbank lending market going and stimulate borrowing.”

The UAE has been the most proactive of the GCC states when supplying additional funding to banks and guaranteeing deposits, in an effort to encourage banks to start lending again.

In a separate move on 13 October, the government of Qatar announced it would take stakes of 10-20 per cent in Qatari banks to allay fears about the credit crisis hitting its financial system.

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