DOHA: There is no going back on the year-end deadline for conventional banks to close their Islamic arms, Qatar Central Bank (QCB) sources reiterated yesterday.
With no hope of a reprieve, a nervous commercial banking industry has barely two working days left to comply with the diktat of the banking regulator.
"We already have made it clear that the deadline of December 31 is final, so conventional banks must abide by the QCB directive within that time frame," a source in the QCB told The Peninsula yesterday.
Asked if he thought the few Islamic banks were capable of handling the large number of accounts that might be shifted from the closed Islamic units, the source said he did believe Islamic banks had the potential.
Industry sources point out that the customers of the Islamic units being closed must either transfer their accounts to the conventional operations of the same bank or take them to Islamic banks.
Customers have been notified of the deadline and given the above two options, so commercial banks expect a huge turnout today and tomorrow, which are the last working days for the sector this year.
The banks have set up special teams to deal with the expected rush as such accounts must be transferred by tomorrow.
If an account is to be shifted to the conventional operations of the same bank, the account number would remain unchanged for the convenience of the customer.
However, it is learned that an increasing number of customers who have no loans want their accounts to be shifted to an Islamic bank and in that case once the account is opened, the balance is being transferred online.
The customers include both individuals and companies. Borrowers are being given the option to either ask an Islamic bank to buy out the debt or they must continue operating the account until the loan has been fully repaid.
The employees of the branches that face closure have been allowed the option to either be shifted to the conventional arms of the bank or seek a 'release' and look for jobs elsewhere.
It is learned that most staff members have declined to be shifted to conventional operations of the banks and have asked for a 'release'.
And since the employees are mostly experienced they hope to be absorbed by the Islamic banks that in any case need more staff to cater to an ever-expanding target audience.
An idea of how brisk the business of Islamic windows of commercial banks have been all these years can be had from the fact that their size totals an incredible QR50bn with their revenues being a staggering QR2.63bn in 2010.
© The Peninsula 2011
