First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s biggest bank by assets, rejected allegations by the regulator of Qatar’s financial free zone that it did not cooperate in an investigation, calling the claims “false”.
Responding to a statement by Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) announcing a fine of 200 million Qatari riyal (Dh201.9m) on FAB for obstruction of an investigation into suspected manipulation of the Qatari riyal, a bank spokesperson said “any allegations that FAB’s QFC branch failed to provide appropriate disclosures are false”.
“As stated previously, the allegations by QFCRA in the QFC Courts are entirely false, and FAB unequivocally denies them,” the spokesperson said in a statement late on Sunday.
FAB, the spokesperson said, conducts its business in accordance with the highest professional standards and in full compliance with the laws and regulations of all the jurisdictions in which it operates.
Although it rejected the QFRCA's allegations, FAB made “good faith efforts” to engage with the authority to resolve the matter, with the bank’s branch in Qatar Financial Centre providing all “relevant and responsive information that it was required to disclose pursuant to QFC law”, its statement said.
It is not coincidental that the actions of the Qatari financial regulator took place when the UAE, along with several other countries, have ended their diplomatic relations with Doha, the spokesperson noted.
The Abu Dhabi-headquartered lender notified QFCRA that it was relinquishing its QFC licence in June last year and closing its operations in the country's financial free zone.
“FAB’s decision to close its QFC branch follows many months of baseless actions by the QFCRA that have made it impossible for FAB’s operations to continue in Qatar,” the bank said.
Treating FAB QFC customers fairly "is of paramount importance", and it will safeguard the rights and interests of its customers through an "orderly wind-down" of the branch. FAB has already put in place appropriate measures to protect all of its QFC branch employees and customers, the lender noted in a June 2018 statement.
It said that the Qatar branch contributed less than 0.03 per cent of FAB’s full-year 2018 net profit, and that relinquishing the QFC branch licence “is not expected to have any material impact on future group performance or strategy”.
