Banks Must Remember Their Customers
Banks in the UAE have gone from offering 95% loan-to-value mortgages to offering very little today. They have gone from lavishing their customers with prizes to lavishing them with notices from bailiffs.
At times it’s difficult to comprehend the one hundred and eighty degree turn in policy and the resulting switch in the fortunes of so many Dubai residents over the past year. Take the case of the Indian couple, as reported in The National on 27th January 2010, who fled Dubai as they were worried about potential prosecution from their lender Tamweel over bounced cheques. 
They plan to sue Tamweel over what they say are unfair business practices. Their personal circumstances changed and they could no longer pay the loan, so fled to avoid imprisonment.
Unfortunately this is not an isolated case.
But I’m sure this couple and others in their position, would be the first to acknowledge that the financing companies and banks need to make money from the lending service. Equally though, they as borrowers must be treated fairly and with dignity as well.
Buyers, who have purchased property in Dubai with a view to residing here for the long term, have done so because they enjoy the lifestyle and the warm hospitality of the Emirati people. Only when matters have reached a breaking point, have buyers resorted to fleeing the country, knowing that unless there is a general amnesty on all absconders they can never set foot in the UAE again.
Now is the time for all parties to come together, to work together, to face down the problems together and work on the remedies hand-in-hand. It is not a time to show legal intransigence and put up barriers.
Banks must remember their customers. They must show the same level of enthusiasm they showed in the boom times, minus the hubris. Small business owners and buyers will respond in kind to this gesture. They also want to work on solutions with the banks. They want to pay, but they need some more time.
In order for the banks to become more flexible in their approach, they will first need to work harder on assessing their potential losses from corporate customers who they lent to; write down or write off these loans.
Having established a clearer picture of the landscape they can get back to the role they and we want them to perform – helping buyers finance the property of their choice, in the city of their choice – Dubai.
3 Comments | By Hashim Ahmed 
Reader Comments (3)
Is there a group site or something to start getting united in this issue?