Qatar banks not affected by econimc crunch
Although banks here are not affected by the global economic crunch, they have, as a precaution, begun to strictly implement an earlier rule which made it mandatory for customers to make a minimum initial deposit to open a savings or current account. Most banks are insisting that customers pay up an initial deposit of QR3,000 to open a savings account. The deposit amount is higher at QR5,000 for a current account.
Source: The Peninsula
Now I'm no financial expert so perhaps I'm reading the signs wrong, but I find the first line of that report absolutely astounding.
The banks here aren't affected by the financial crisis? Really?
So why are the government injecting cash into them, and why have some of them restricted the terms of their mortgages so they are pretty much unobtainable, and why are they now enforcing the restrictions on opening current and savings accounts.
If I'm wrong then someone please set me straight, but as it stands I think this is irresponsible journalism. Why can't they run a story about the banks and actually admit that, while they may not be in serious trouble, they are certainly feeling the effects of the economic downturn.
Update: The Peninsula article is by Mobin Pandit. If you're reading this Mobin (and we know how you Peninsula journalists love to browse QL ;) I'd be interested to know why you lead the article with that statement. Is that your own view or the one you've been told to project?
Exactly rami. When they reported the cash injects a while the papers just said something along the lines of "Cash injected into banks" and they didn't bother mentioning anything about whether they're affected by the financial crisis or not.
That's why this story stuck out to me.
Jack,
All your comments are true and valid, but I think you're missing Tallg's point.
If the newspaper didn't want to upset the banks or QTel or any other industry sector, they could just judiciously chose not to report the news.
Instead, they are printing things that are factually inaccurate.
maybe the arabic press is truly free. Anyway, don't think there'll be a bank run over here. The govt. can easily loan to a bank. Just wonderin though, how come prices of commodities are still on pre-economic-crisis levels? Almost every business is on slowmo worldwide, but here? People will not engage in any spending if this is the case. Sound fundamentals?
tallg.....Banks give a lot of advertisment money
If Banks & Q-Tel remove their advertisement subscriptions then the Newspapers too will face the Economic Crunch....lol
That's not my point jackmohan. I'm more concerned with the fact that the news story leads with a statement that isn't true. It's one thing to not report things, but another to actually make a false statement.
Its all crap...if everytng was fine then y do some banks have to change der policies....Car loans were gven at minimum salary of 4000 n now some banks have made it 25000/- still the journalist thinks that its well n fine???
Banks have started terminating "Outsourcing agents" n stopped gving loans....wat else do the journalist needs to prove that banks r not going under the crises??
Economics Crunch...
Tallg ...lol its the same every where...
Banks...we are not affected by the crunch....but we have "stepped up" the "inflow" of cash and on the other hand have "stepped down" the "outflow of cash"...
Companies.....we are not affected at all....we are just reviewing our manpower commitments.
Real Estate ....we are not affected....the market rates have increased 3%.
....They are not in denial ....just trying to get as many customers as possible.....and survive another month.
No company is going to say "a week from now we are going to be Bankrupt".
2009 is going to be a rough year, even here in Qatar.
Be prepared for a lot of farewell parties.
no bank runs will occur out here, i'll be very glad to say... all is well after all.
but until that day comes... let's all keep our fingers crossed.. to all of us who's forced to stay put in one way or another.
Wished Us All a Blessed and Properous Year Ahead :-)
And yet somethings new strange goin on? Doesn't make sense huh?
Yep. That's an understatement. Why would journalist cover the real thing? Perhaps they don't want to cause public panic. Does that makes sense? Well, the market is good since Qatar is one of the few countries built on cash not credit but heck, everyone knows banks in Qatar is affected. No one can turn the tables.
cheers,
paul
what run is there to be made on the banks. if at all anything happens, the govt. has enough funds to inject into the banks.
The error of omission is bad, and common in the local papers. We just don't get told stuff.
But clear errors of fact of this nature are appalling.
And what sort of fools are out there reading this, thinking to themselves... "ah, well, if The Peninsula says that the banking sector is fine, then it must be fine".
Perhaps the journalist was worried about causing a run on the banks!
they are on denial...u
"If you don't want my apples, don't shake my tree"