The Central Bank is standing its ground against a backlash from commercial lenders over new exposure limits, saying the rules will not change.
Regulations came into effect on Sunday, limiting the amount banks could lend to governments and their commercial holding companies.
Lenders including Emirates NBD and National Bank of Abu Dhabi have said they were in breach of the new limits and were not sure how to reduce their exposures.
Despite expectations that the Central Bank would grant waivers or extensions to banks, the regulator is refusing to budge on the policy.
"There is no extension. It stands as it is," Saif Hadef Al Shamsi, the assistant governor for monetary policy and financial stability, said on the sidelines of an Arab central bankers' conference in Kuwait.
"This is a matter that we continuously discuss with banks … and, of course, not all banks will be able to comply with the new regulation at the same time," said the Central Bank governor Sultan Nasser Al Suwaidi when asked about banks that were in breach of the limits.
The loan limits, announced in April and in effect from Sunday, forbid bank lending to local governments if exposure exceeds a lender's total capital. They also prohibit exposure to governments' commercial entities in aggregate from crossing the same limit. No limits previously existed.
Bankers have speculated it could take years to reduce their government loan books, with few European banks having the capital to take the debts off local banks' books.
Emirates NBD is having "constructive discussions with the Central Bank on a one-to-one basis", a spokesman for the bank said.
National Bank of Abu Dhabi said last week it had asked the Central Bank for an extension to Sunday's deadline "to give time for detailed and technical discussions to take place".
The regulator's stance surprised analysts, some of whom had expected a six-month extension to the deadline.
However, it is unlikely the Central Bank will attempt to enforce the regulations and punish breaches of the rules immediately, said Jean-Michel Saliba, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Still, the regulations could serve as a "tool to force dialogue whenever [banks] want to increase exposure to specific names", he said.
"They'll still keep discussing it with the banks to see how this can turn into some kind of macro-prudential rule."
ghunter@thenational.ae
Cryopreservation: A timeline
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
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ENGLAND TEAM
England (15-1)
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Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, George Kruis, Lewis Ludlam, Willi Heinz, Ollie Devoto, Jonathan Joseph
THE SPECS
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Teams
Punjabi Legends Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan
Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
Timeline October 25: Around 120 players to be entered into a draft, to be held in Dubai; December 21: Matches start; December 24: Finals
Key facilities
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- 400m Olympic running track
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Founder: Ayman Badawi
Date started: Test product September 2016, paid launch January 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software
Size: Seven employees
Funding: $170,000 in angel investment
Funders: friends
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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BMW M5 specs
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8 traditional Jamaican dishes to try at Kingston 21
- Trench Town Rock: Jamaican-style curry goat served in a pastry basket with a carrot and potato garnish
- Rock Steady Jerk Chicken: chicken marinated for 24 hours and slow-cooked on the grill
- Mento Oxtail: flavoured oxtail stewed for five hours with herbs
- Ackee and salt fish: the national dish of Jamaica makes for a hearty breakfast
- Jamaican porridge: another breakfast favourite, can be made with peanut, cornmeal, banana and plantain
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- Hellshire Pon di Beach: Fresh fish with pickles
- Out of Many: traditional sweet potato pudding
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
At a glance - Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020
Launched: 2008
Categories: Health, energy, water, food, global high schools
Prize: Dh2.2 million (Dh360,000 for global high schools category)
Winners’ announcement: Monday, January 13
Impact in numbers
335 million people positively impacted by projects
430,000 jobs created
10 million people given access to clean and affordable drinking water
50 million homes powered by renewable energy
6.5 billion litres of water saved
26 million school children given solar lighting
The biog
Name: Greg Heinricks
From: Alberta, western Canada
Record fish: 56kg sailfish
Member of: International Game Fish Association
Company: Arabian Divers and Sportfishing Charters
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
