UAE lenders have tapped 30 per cent of a Dh50 billion Targeted Economic Support Scheme (Tess) facility to help businesses and individuals through the Covid-19 outbreak, the Central Bank of the UAE said on Sunday.
Lenders "are passing on these funds to their customers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic", Governor Abdulhamid Saeed said.
"We will continue to work closely with banks and financial institutions to accelerate their full utilisation of the Tess," Mr Saeed said.
"This requires banks to closely collaborate with us and intensify their efforts to implement the economic stimulus package for the benefit of the banking sector and the UAE economy.”
The support scheme was announced as a Dh100 billion package on March 14, which included a direct Dh50bn injection of funds through zero cost collateralised loans provided by the central bank, plus a relaxation of banks' capital buffers allowing them to increase lending by another Dh50bn.
Further easing of restrictions on capital and liquidity reserves subsequently increased the overall size of the stimulus to Dh256bn.
The central bank also reiterated that lenders remove requirements for small and medium-sized businesses to have a minimum account balance of Dh10,000 before opening accounts.
The regulator also said lenders should speed up the length of time it took to open accounts to no longer than two days – unless potential customers were deemed to be high-risk under anti money-laundering rules.
The central bank said it expected banks to "retain sound lending standards" and treat customers fairly, but added that all banks should participate in the scheme, which is set to run until the end of this year. It also said it will begin to publish details of how individual banks have used the Tess facility, starting next month.
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Coronavirus around the region
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Police officers check vehicles on the empty Ataturk Airport road on the road during 48-hour restrictions imposed to stem the spread of coronavirus in Ankara, Turkey. AFP -
Shiite Muslim men carry a coffin to the Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib mosque in Iraq's central shrine city of Najaf during a funeral procession, one of the very rare ceremonies still allowed in the city during the coronavirus pandemic. AFP -
People walk past a damaged building depicting drawings alluding to the coronavirus and encouraging people to stay at home, in the rebel-held Idlib city, Syria. Reuters -
A member of the Kurdish internal security forces stands in the middle of an empty road in the city of Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province a day after local authorities of the Kurdish-dominated northern part of war-torn Syria recorded its first death due to the coronavirus outbreak. AFP -
A car drives past Le Bristol hotel in Beirut, Lebanon. One of the country's landmark hotels that has survived the country's bloody 15-year civil war is closing its doors due to a combination of an economic crisis and the global health threat of coronavirus. AP Photo -
Workers from the Kuwait Ministry of Public Works paves a road near the capital as the Ministry takes the opportunity to repair and repave roads during the curfew hours. AFP -
The empty Galata bridge in Istanbul, as Turkish government announced further restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus. AFP -
Men sit outside a closed shop along a street in Erbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region. AFP -
The empty Istiklal street in Istanbul, Turkey. EPA -
An Iraqi Kurdish woman and her relative outside their home in Erbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region. AFP -
The empty shore side of the Golden Horn, with the Metro bridge in the foreground and Unkapani bridge in the background, in Istanbul. AFP -
A Palestinian groom, Rafeh Qassim, wears a mask as he sits in a car with his bride on their wedding day, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Reuters -
A member of the security forces checks his new haircut, provided by a volunteer hairdresser, in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. AFP -
Lebanese bride and groom Joanna and Marc wearing protective masks designed as a national flag, pose for pictures during their wedding cermony attended only by close relatives amid the COVID-19 pandemic, at the Saint Georges church in the Hadath region, east of the capital Beirut. AFP -
Palestinian security forces in the West Bank city of Hebron. EPA -
Police officers check vehicles on the empty Kizilay Square in Ankara. AFP -
A member of the medical staff at Moroccos's military field hospital in Nouaceur, South of Casablanca, inspects the beds as they prepare to receive patients of the coronavirus pandemic. AFP -
A member of the medical staff at Moroccos's military field hospital in Nouaceur, South of Casablanca, checks a monitor as staff prepared to receive patients of the coronavirus pandemic. AFP -
An employee of the Ankara Municipality staff feed pigeons in a park in Ankara. AFP -
A man wearing a compulsory face mask observes his neighborhood from a hill during a health state of emergency and home confinement orders in Rabat, Morocco. AP Photo -
A man paints outside his home while a woman wearing a face mask walks past during a health state of emergency and home confinement order in Rabat, Morocco. AP Photo
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The Covid-19 outbreak represents the biggest challenge to the global economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s, as social distancing measures put in to limit its spread hit industries such as aviation and tourism hard.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund said it expected the global economy to shrink 3 per cent in 2020, a sharp downward revision from its earlier forecast of 3.3 per cent growth. Lower oil prices also mean Middle East and Central Asia economies were projected to contract 2.8 per cent this year.
Banks in Abu Dhabi were undertaking 17 initiatives to help customers affected by Covid-19, such as payment holidays for up to three months on mortgages, personal loans and credit card debts for individuals, and three-month holidays on business loans (with no extra charges) for SMEs.
A group of lenders in Dubai, including Emirates NBD and Dubai Islamic Bank, have begun similar measures.
