UAE banks’ new 'debt-free' scheme

The UAE Banks Federation (UBF) has affirmed its support for the defaulted small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the body would do everything to assist them.

“UBF’s SME initiative has succeeded to contain the problem facing defaulted SMEs, and the aim of the scheme will remain to do everything we can to assist those SMEs and corporates experiencing difficulties to survive while ensuring the continuing high quality of our assets as lenders,” said AbdulAziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of the UAE Banks Federation.

Al Ghurair was speaking at UBF’s second meeting for this year in Abu Dhabi. The meeting reviewed progress made on the ‘Modus Operandi’ – an initiative recently launched by UBF to rescue and support SMEs and corporates in debt.

He said the UAE banks are financially in sound position for their capital adequacy ratio for Basel III exceed international standards.

“UAE banks are generally in very good shape in relation to meeting and indeed exceeding international standards of capital adequacy and preparedness for the introduction of Basle 3 in 2018.  But as we move towards its introduction, the economic climate fluctuates and further changes are made to the standards to be met, we need to continue to monitor the compliance of all our members and seek to address any issues as soon as they arise,” Al Ghurair said.

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