Qatar's liquidity improves after $9bn bond sale
Date
8/31/2016 9:18:41 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Doha Bank Group CEO Dr. R Seetharaman and Centrum Group Chairman Jaspal Bindra at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in the presence of Doha Bank Managing Director Sheikh Abdul Rehman bin Mohamed bin Jabor Al Thani and other officials. The Mou with the Indian financial services firm Centrum Group will enable them to leverage each other";s network and scale up operations in India and the GCC countries in the areas of banking, wealth management and foreign exchange.
DOHA: The availability of funds in the Qatari banking system, which earlier this year became a more serious issue than during the 2008 financial crisis, is improving after the country";s $9bn bond sale in May, Doha Bank Chief Executive Officer Dr. R Seetharaman said.
'The second quarter was an improvement compared to the first quarter, and the third quarter has also been following the right trend,” he said in a TV interview with Bloomberg Markets Middle East on Tuesday. 'We";re likely to see similar in the coming quarters.”, Bloomberg quoted him as saying.
Bank liquidity in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, has been tightening as a more than 50 percent slump in crude oil prices since mid-2014 slows deposit growth and pushes governments to boost borrowing. The situation in Qatar became a bigger issue at the start of the year than it was in 2008, Seetharaman said in May, the same month that the government sold $9bn of Eurobonds in the Middle East";s biggest-ever bond issue.
Lenders in Qatar had experienced 'extraordinary stress” this year amid the tightening liquidity and were forced to adapt their businesses to the low-oil environment, Seetharaman said in May.”
'Banks were also facing a narrowing in net interest margins and higher interest expenses, he said. With the $9bn bond sale, the cost of funding is also coming down for banks,” Seetharaman said.
The Peninsula