Barclays stays on UAE rate panel after bank request
Disgraced bank asked to remain until replacement is found
Dubai: Barclays Plc, which plans to leave a 12-bank group in the United Arab Emirates whose quotes determine the interbank lending rate, will stay on the panel for the next three months, two people familiar with the matter said.
Barclays was asked by the UAE Central Bank to remain on the panel to give it time to find a replacement, they said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Wednesday’s meeting didn’t address possible replacements for Barclays on the panel, according to them.
The bank, Britain’s second-biggest bank by assets, paid a £290 million ($449 million, Dh1.65 billion) fine to US and UK regulators last month for manipulating the benchmark Libor rate. Barclays’ UAE unit submitted a request to the central bank this month to exit the rate-setting panel in the second-biggest Arab economy, a person familiar with the matter said on July 15.
A spokesman for Barclays in Dubai declined to comment. A central bank spokesman also declined to comment.
The central bank uses lending rates from 12 banks operating in the UAE to compute the Emirates Interbank Offered Rate, or Eibor. The interbank rate, used as a benchmark by banks to price loans to customers, is an average after excluding the two lowest and the highest lending rates from the 12 banks.
Citigroup Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc are the other foreign banks on the panel, which also includes eight local lenders including Emirates NBD PJSC and National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, according to the central bank website.
