Qatar's new credit bureau looks to limit risks and delinquencies

Doha: Qatar's new credit bureau will improve risk management in banks and competition for good credit may lower rates, its chief executive said yesterday, and aims to curtail market delinquencies in the country.

Qatar's central bank this week launched the bureau to assess individuals' creditworthiness and limit lending risks.

"It is very important to have a credit bureau in Qatar. Before, banks used to give a loan based on the information that they had only. But now, the banks will be able to see the [customer's] total exposure in the market, the total loan that he has, and also any negative information or delinquencies," Bandar Bin Mohammad Al Thani, chief executive officer of Qatar's Credit Bureau, said.

"Everybody will compete to give credit to good persons, which will bring in an indirect way the interest rates down because competition will increase," he said.

The global downturn cut output and froze credit in the world's top oil exporting region in 2009, limiting growth in the six Gulf countries last year. But rising crude prices and a pick-up in credit growth are expected to support growth in 2011.

"We did not have enough information to assess risks on people and companies.

"This lack of information caused wrong decisions. By the end of the year we will see the results," he said.

Al Thani said he could not give forecasts for credit growth in Qatar this year. The credit services will later be extended to telecommunications and insurance companies, the central bank said.