Dollar shortages hit Qatar exchange houses
DOHA/DUBAI/ABU DHABI: Shortages of US dollars hit money exchange houses in Qatar on Sunday, making it harder for worried foreign workers to send money home, as foreign banks scaled back business with Qatari institutions because of the region’s diplomatic crisis.
“We have no dollars because there is no shipment or transportation from the UAE. There is no stock,” said a dealer at the QatarUAE Exchange House in Doha’s City Center mall. “The shipment is blocked from the UAE.”
Several other exchange houses in Doha also told Reuters they had no supplies of dollars.
At Qatar-UAE Exchange, dozens of people — some of the foreigners who comprise nearly 90 percent of the population of 2.6 million — waited quietly in line to change money or make remittances to their home countries.
“I am not panicked but my family are scared,” said John Vincent, an air-conditioning repairman from the Philippines.
“I sent 2,000 riyals ($550) home but I have some more savings left here in Qatar. I will see what the situation is in coming days before I decide what to do.”
The dollar shortages do not mean Qatar is running out of money. But they show how the diplomatic crisis is disrupting parts of the financial system.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahraini and Egyptian banks began scaling back business with Qatar last week after their governments cut diplomatic and transport ties, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism.
Then at the weekend, the UAE told its banks to exercise “enhanced due diligence” toward six Qatari banks which, it alleged, might have done business with people or entities on a terrorism blacklist.
UAE banks were absent from Qatar’s foreign exchange and money markets on Sunday, causing both those markets to slow down, because they feared any deals could expose them to legal risk, bankers said.
Some Western banks with a presence in Qatar continued business as normal, partly because they did not want to lose out on billions of dollars of building projects.
But other Western banks have halted new Qatar business including interbank and syndicated lending, while continuing to service existing business, banking sources said.
“Everybody is shocked — they are not worried about Qatar’s credit, they are worried about compliance and the risk that the local sanctions could be escalated to an international level,” said one foreign banker in the region.