QNB ‘considers loans, bond sales’

CAIRO – 7 August 2017: Qatar National Bank (QNB) and international banks have reportedly discussed accessing loans or issuing bond sales in the fourth quarter of 2017 to secure liquidity.

Anonymous sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on 7 August that a final decision regarding the matter is yet to be made.

“Finding reasonable financing options for QNB now has an alarming effect that it sends out to the market, namely it does not rely solely on Qatari Central Bank liquidity actions and can access various funding options in a difficult environment quite easily,” senior money manager at Frankfurt-based Union Investment Privatfonds Sergey Dergachev told Bloomberg.

A number of banks in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have reportedly refrained from extending deposits with Qatari banks.

Sources familiar with the matter, who requested to remain anonymous, told Bloomberg on 6 August that these banks are worried about facing repercussions from their government had they continued business ties with Qatar.

The news indicated that foreign deposits at Qatari banks might fall further. Deposits from non-residents in Qatar in 18 banks dropped 7.6 percent to QAR 170.6 billion ($47 billion) in June. Those figures are from a month earlier, according to the Qatar Central Bank (QCB).

Qatar’s net international reserves declined 30 percent in June to $24 billion, according to QCB figures.