Implementation of ‘Targeted Economic Support Scheme’ discussed

The Governor of the Central Bank of the UAE, CBUAE, and the CEOs of all banks recently discussed the implementation of the Targeted Economic Support Scheme, TESS.

A press statement issued by the CBUAE on Sunday said that it is closely monitoring banks’ utilisation of the TESS programme for the benefit of individuals, SMEs and other private corporates affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of its ongoing mandate to safeguard consumers, the CBUAE developed detailed regulations and guidelines in relation to the TESS. Banks are urged to process more applications from individuals, corporates and SMEs whose business operations are affected by the implications of the pandemic.

Also as part of the regulations, banks are expected to retain sound lending standards and are required to treat all their customers fairly.

During the validity of the TESS, which runs up to year end 2020, banks are expected to postpone the payments of interest and/-or principal of loans for customers; Individuals, SMEs and other private sector companies affected by the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The TESS includes a liquidity relief tool of Dhs50 billion offered by the CBUAE through banks to eligible customers who wish to apply for a deferment. Those eligible customers impacted by the effects of the pandemic will not be required to pay their respective bank any installments, consisting of principal and/or interest/profit, for the agreed deferment period.

However, any interest/profit accrued during the deferment period on the principal amount, will be paid by the customer at a later date, to be agreed upon with their respective bank. Banks should not charge any interest/profit on the deferred interest/profit amounts.

The CBUAE has mandated banks to accelerate the account opening time to a maximum of two days for SMEs, unless banks identify the customer as high risk from an anti-money laundering perspective.

Additionally, banks shall not be allowed to require their SME customers to have a minimum account balance amounting to over Dhs10 thousand. This measure is aimed at providing banks’ customers with economic relief and to facilitate the continuation of business operations in the UAE.

Additional measures taken by CBUAE include the decrease of the minimum required down payment, to increase the affordability of real estate.

Abdulhamid Saeed, Governor of the Central Bank of the UAE, said, “Banks have already utilised over 30 per cent of allocated funds from the TESS facility and are actively passing on these funds to their customers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We will continue to work closely with banks and financial institutions to accelerate their full utilisation of the TESS. 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 TESS facility will support the economy, with an aggregate value of all capital and liquidity relief measures adopted by the CBUAE amounting to AED256 billion.

The CBUAE expects all banks to fully participate in the Targeted Economic Support Scheme to actively mitigate the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide necessary relief measures enabling the banking sector to continuously finance businesses and other economic sectors. The CBUAE will begin to publish the TESS facility usage by individual banks starting May 2020.

Meanwhile, the Weekly Price Index decreased by 0.7 per cent to 103.0 points in the second week of April 2020, down from 103.7 points in the previous week, according to the latest issue of the ‘Weekly Price Index Report’ released by the Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi, SCAD, for a selected basket of food and non-food consumer goods.

However, the index advanced by 3.0 per cent in the second week of April 2020, compared with February 2020 as a reference month, SCAD noted.

The food component of the index increased by 2.3 per cent and the non-food by 6.3 per cent in the second week of April 2020, compared with February 2020 (the reference month). The fish and seafood group contributed 45.3 per cent to the overall increase, reflecting a 15.1 per cent rise in the prices of this group, which represents 9.1 per cent of the total index weight.

The masks, gloves, cold and flu medicines and analgesics group added 30.9 per cent to the overall increase due to a massive 25.0 per cent surge in the prices of the group, which constitutes 3.7 per cent of index weight.

WAM