Emirates NBD still in talks on loan curbs

Emirates NBD still in talks on loan curbs

The Dubai based bank is still talking with the Central Bank to get a satisfactory situation with new lending limits.

October 22, 2012 3:36 by Reuters

Dubai lender Emirates NBD is in discussions with the United Arab Emirates central bank over new lending limits on banks, its chief executive said on Monday, after the deadline to meet the requirements passed on Sept. 30.

“We are talking on a continued basis with the central bank to get to a satisfactory situation. The deadline has passed and the discussions are still ongoing and we hope to conclude them in the near future,” chief executive Rick Pudner told reporters in a conference call after the bank’s third-quarter earnings.

Pudner said the bank forecast its net loan growth for 2012 at 5 to 6 percent, while the outlook for lending growth next year was also conservative, at 4 to 5 percent.

Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest bank, expects the $10 billion debt restructuring underway at Dubai Group, a unit of Dubai Holding, to take another three to six months to complete, with final terms still “uncertain”, Ben Franz-Marwick, the bank’s head of investor relations, said on the call.