Salem Abdullah Al Shamsi, committee moderator, at the monthly FNC council meeting. Victor Besa / The National
Salem Abdullah Al Shamsi, committee moderator, at the monthly FNC council meeting. Victor Besa / The National

Dh93 billion of loans have been given to SMEs in the UAE



Loans worth Dh93.1 billion have been given by banks to SMEs in the UAE, the governor of the Central Bank revealed at the Federal National Council yesterday.

Mubarak Al Mansouri, chief executive of Emirates Investment Authority, said almost 41,000 loans were made and the total amount of money lent equalled 6 per cent of total domestic credit.

This was considered surprising and hefty by business banking experts.

Martin Roussel, a business banking expert, said for Dh93bn to be divided by 40,000 companies – meaning that each company received about Dh2.3 million – was “good for SME exposure”.

“It seems as though the market has moved towards bigger and older companies. Hence the need to support younger and knowledge-based companies.”

Compared with loans given to the much larger population of Eastern Europe, for instance, Mr Roussel said the figure “sounds pretty big”. But considering the expensive cost of living in the UAE, he said the figure was reasonable.

Mr Roussel also expects further increases in loans given to SMEs in the coming period, “because we suffered quite a lot at the end of 2014 with the drop of oil prices, but now there are new players like Government funds looking for additional sources.”

“In an economy that needs to diversify, these guys (SMEs) need to be catered for,” he said.

During the session, the FNC also passed a draft law on lease financing as the practice was not previously regulated.

The law says that companies who practice lease financing without a license from the Central bank will face a fine of between Dh200,000 and Dh10m, and/or a jail sentence.

Lease financing is an important source of medium- and long-term financing where the owner of an asset gives another person the right to use that asset in return for payment.

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Number of employees: 4
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Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren

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Company profile

Name: Infinite8

Based: Dubai

Launch year: 2017

Number of employees: 90

Sector: Online gaming industry

Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor

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COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

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● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

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US households add $601bn of debt in 2019

American households borrowed another $601 billion (Dh2.2bn) in 2019, the largest yearly gain since 2007, just before the global financial crisis, according to February data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Fuelled by rising mortgage debt as homebuyers continued to take advantage of low interest rates, the increase last year brought total household debt to a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2008 just before the market crash, according to the report.

Following the 22nd straight quarter of growth, American household debt swelled to $14.15 trillion by the end of 2019, the New York Fed said in its quarterly report.

In the final three months of the year, new home loans jumped to their highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2005, while credit cards and auto loans also added to the increase.

The bad debt load is taking its toll on some households, and the New York Fed warned that more and more credit card borrowers — particularly young people — were falling behind on their payments.

"Younger borrowers, who are disproportionately likely to have credit cards and student loans as their primary form of debt, struggle more than others with on-time repayment," New York Fed researchers said.

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Name: Almnssa
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