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| Ethiopian bankers join battle against bankruptcies
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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) -
Ethiopian bankers have welcomed efforts
by the central bank to put stringent curbs on foreign currency
reserves and pledged to continually share information on lenders to
stem cases of bankruptcies in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian bankers, meeting on Thursday for the signing of a landmark
agreement on the sharing of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) points
amongst their
respective banks, said that the sharing of customer information would
help to curb cases of defaults on loans.
The apex National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) continues to stringently
monitor the activities of the commercial banks, and the stringent
monitoring has seen the NBE
increase the liquidity requirements by the banks to boost their
foreign reserves.
"This is from a prudence view point. The banks have to take care of
the depositors money," Ethiopia's veteran banker, Amerga Kassa,
President of the Nib International
Bank, told PANA on Thursday.
According to Leikun Berhanu, the President of the Awash International
Bank, the banks have agreed to share information among themselves on
customer risk profiles.
"The NBE is supervising the activities of all the banks. The banks are
supervised to ensure the borrowers do not endanger the system. We will
not allow one borrower to
get credit from any other banks if they have any defaults anywhere," he said.
Ethiopian bankers said shared technologies for banking and cash
machines were common in most parts of the world.
Ethiopia is on the brink of a major financial crisis, with the foreign
currency reserves dwindling as a result of the global financial crisis
and increased demand for imports locally,
partly worsened by the rise in oil prices in most parts of 2008.
NBE has introduced a number of measures to stem the crisis, among
them, putting curbs on the amount of loans disbursed by the commercial
banks.
This has been done by asking the commercial banks to ensure their
reserves are triple the amount they have previously been allowed
before, which means lending to the private sector
should be limited while the government commits to zero domestic borrowing.
The commercial banks said the strict monitoring and sharing of
customer information, relating to the loans and other credit
references, would help to stabilise the banks.
"We do not feel constrained by these requirements. These measures are
okay for us, we do not feel we are particularly under any pressure,"
Kassa told PANA.
Three Ethiopian banks, NIB, Awash International and United Bank, have
joined forces to create a network of interlinked ATMs across the
country to allow Ethiopians easy access to non-cash-based transactions
in line with new trends across Africa.
The three banks hope to launch the new ATM system, with an initial
number of 140 ATMs and some 340 points of sale, where customers with
credit and debit cards issued by any of the three banks can get
services across the country.
The deal is meant to offer ATM services across all the airports,
domestic and the international airports, shopping malls and
supermarkets.
The three banks are to spend US$4 million to rollout the joint ATM
networks over the next six months.
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| Addis Ababa - 20/02/2009 |
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