Mashreq sees 'unprecedented' credit card skips

Mashreq said on Tuesday that the number of people leaving the UAE without paying off their credit card bills was above expectations, following an “unprecedented” number of delinquencies in the first half of the year.

“It’s higher than our expectations and it’s been an increasing feature of our industry during the first six months of the year,” the bank’s head of retail banking, Douglas Beckett, told Arabian Business on the sidelines of a press conference.

Job losses, reduced salaries and concerns about the regulatory environment have resulted in “a level of skip here that’s unprecedented in our industry experience”, he said.

Many customers also worry that banks may not be interested in having constructive conversations about their situation, he added.

“I hope we’re through the worst, that’s our view. We’re at the bottom, I think, with some concerns about real estate still on the horizon.”

The UAE’s third largest bank by revenue believes the next six months will see the market stabilising, before staging a gradual recovery.

“It’s been a very challenging environment but Mashreq is a very strongly capitalised bank and we’re working very hard with our customers to enable them to get through what has been a very tough period for them,” Beckett said.

An increase in the amount of traffic on Dubai’s roads could be a sign that the economy is beginning to improve, he said.

“All of us can see the traffic around and there’s a bit more velocity in our environment. It’s getting harder to get a taxi at night, and so on. I think the real world out there is starting to show signs of improvement.”

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