Monday, 9 August 2010

Qatari banks face shake-up despite strength

Qatar National Bank's head office building

When the global financial system buckled, few countries acted as swiftly and aggressively in propping up their banks as Qatar, the small but wealthy Gulf emirate.

Although Qatar’s banks looked relatively healthy at the time, thanks to a buoyant local economy, the government took no chances. In October 2008 the authorities announced that they would inject additional capital and increase the government’s equity stakes in all commercial banks to at least 10 per cent.

In early 2009 the government followed this by buying the entire domestic stock market and real estate portfolios of all banks at par, to ward off any mark-to-market losses.

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