Khalifa orders settlement of citizens’ loans

The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has ordered settlement of defaulting personal loans of citizens whose debts are less than Dh5 million, be they in detention, pending trial or convicted, or settling their debts through installment schedules set by the courts.

Shaikh Khalifa’s gesture follows the recommendation submitted by the Supreme Committee of the Debts Settlement Fund for Citizens with limited income, chaired by Ahmed Jumaa Al Zaabi, Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs and Chairman of the Higher Committee of the Fund.

The number of those covered by the Presidential Decree was 368 Emiratis, whose defaulting debts touches about Dh568 million. The number of detainees whom sentences have been issued was 60 citizens with owed defaulting total amounts of about Dh68.8 million.

The Supreme Committee of the Debts Settlement Fund for Citizens had reviewed in a meeting, presided over by Al Zaabi, the list of defaulters prepared by the UAE Central Bank. It includes the names of citizens whose loans are less than Dh5 million, pending banking settlements with the creditor banks in accordance with procedures of the fund.

Al Zaabi said the presidential decree reflects keenness of Shaikh Khalifa to provide good living conditions and family stability to the citizens. He added that the fund continues work to settle all the defaulting loans, taking into account the size of beneficiary categories, nature of loans and the defaulting cases.

He called on the beneficiaries of bank settlements provided by the fund to speed up their applications to the bank and creditor agencies to complete the settlement procedures in accordance with the procedures specified by the fund.