The UAE's nascent credit bureau will begin operations next month to help banks assess the ability of clients to pay back debt.
“The first phase, which will be launched in September, will allow banks and financial institutions to access and purchase existing and potential customers’ credit reports electronically after submitting all the necessary documents,” said Marwan Ahmed Lutfi, the chief executive of the bureau. “Customers will also have access to their credit reports through our soon-to-be-launched customer service centres.”
Al Etihad Credit Bureau had already started to ask banks to submit financial data and is collecting information from lenders.
Bankers say that the bureau is likely to be good for consumers, as the most creditworthy bank customers will get better interest rates. The cost of financing in the UAE is hovering at lows of at least eight years. This has spurred a boom in borrowing and authorities are keen to prevent credit growth from spiralling out of control from such initiatives.
The bureau intends to create a database of the credit history of all retail borrowers to enable banks to build an accurate picture of a potential borrower’s indebtedness, allowing them to assess his or her ability to honour the debt. At the moment, banks cannot check the credit history of customers relating to other lenders.
Experiences in other countries show credit bureaus can help to stop individuals with a poor credit history from amassing further debt, while easing the flow of credit to those able to repay loans. Banks benefit by generally not having to build such large provisions against the risk of defaults.
A federal law was passed in 2010 to establish the bureau but moves to create the institution have only been stepped up in recent months.
Mr Lutfi, a former Dubai International Financial Centre official, has overseen a security audit of the system to ensure the efficient roll-out of the bureau’s services and the signing of agreements with all financial institutions requiring them to submit credit data to the bureau.
mkassem@thenational.ae
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Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Top New Zealand cop on policing the virtual world
New Zealand police began closer scrutiny of social media and online communities after the attacks on two mosques in March, the country's top officer said.
The killing of 51 people in Christchurch and wounding of more than 40 others shocked the world. Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist, was accused of the killings. His trial is ongoing and he denies the charges.
Mike Bush, commissioner of New Zealand Police, said officers looked closely at how they monitored social media in the wake of the tragedy to see if lessons could be learned.
“We decided that it was fit for purpose but we need to deepen it in terms of community relationships, extending them not only with the traditional community but the virtual one as well," he told The National.
"We want to get ahead of attacks like we suffered in New Zealand so we have to challenge ourselves to be better."
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