UAE central bank launches resilience package amid Iran crisis?

By Federico Maccioni

DUBAI, March 17 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates central bank (CBUAE) on Tuesday approved a package aimed at reinforcing the stability of the country's banking sector, as Gulf economies take action to withstand the Iran crisis.

The war, now in its third week and with no end in sight, has thrown global energy markets and transport into chaos as the conflict has spread, with multiple attacks on Dubai and other countries across the Gulf. Regional lenders have proved resilient, but they are being severely tested.

The UAE's financial system "has demonstrated resilience during the current extraordinary circumstances affecting the global and regional markets without any material impact on the banking sector's health and payment systems," the CBUAE board said in a statement.

Under the package approved on Tuesday, banks will gain enhanced access to reserve balances of up to 30% of the cash reserve requirement and access to term liquidity facilities in both UAE dirhams and U.S. dollars, the CBUAE said.

Other measures include temporary relief in liquidity and stable funding ratios as well as the temporary release of the countercyclical capital buffer and capital conservation buffer, it added. Gulf banks could face domestic deposit outflows of $307 billion if the Middle East conflict deepens, S&P Global Ratings said in a report on Monday. The ratings agency said, however, that it had seen no evidence of major outflows of foreign or local funding from banks.

The CBUAE said in Tuesday's statement that the overall stock of liquidity held by UAE banks at the regulator, combined with their net eligible assets for central bank operations, had reached close to $250 billion, of which banks' reserve balances exceed $109 billion.

(Reporting by Federico Maccioni, Writing by Muhammad Al Gebaly, Editing by Franklin Paul, Rod Nickel)