How Qatar foiled a scheme to weaken its currency?

What are the most prominent banks and institutions against which Qatar has filed international cases?

Haviland Bank, headquartered in Luxembourg, First Abu Dhabi Bank of the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia’s Samba Financial Group.

How much does Qatar require from First Abu Dhabi Bank as rights?

200 million Qatari riyals ($ 55 million).

Since the first appearance of the Gulf crisis in mid-June 2017, the countries boycotting Qatar have focused on hitting the Qatari riyal. In an attempt to reduce its value against foreign currencies, and push the country’s economy towards a precipice.

Despite all the economic pressures, the financial and specialized institutions in Qatar stood desperately defending all the practices of the boycotting countries, but subsequently managed to turn the matter in their favor, and start using their judicial tools to prosecute the authorities and banks that tried to harm the value of the riyal.

Those countries used all their capabilities to put pressure on the Qatari riyal, which was able to maintain its price against the dollar, and remained steadfast at 3.64 until today, with the passage of nearly 3 years since the blockade imposed on Doha.

Another financial issue

From an early age, Qatar moved to stop any manipulation to harm its economy, and from the early days of the boycott it began to open judicial investigations, before starting the prosecution of those who contributed to the damage to its economy, the last of whom was “First Abu Dhabi Bank”, against which a lawsuit was filed in New York on November 24, 2020, to pay off a debt. Ordered by a court ruling of 200 million Qatari riyals ($ 55 million).

The Qatar Financial Center Regulatory Authority said that its lawsuit aims to recover the amount due to the authority from assets owned by the bank in New York, according to Reuters.

The authority confirmed that the bank did not make payment against the backdrop of this final ruling by the Civil and Commercial Court of the Qatar Financial Center, which obliges the QFC Regulatory Authority to take steps to enforce the court’s ruling under the umbrella of well-known procedures regarding international enforcement of financial rulings.

The lawsuit came because the bank had obstructed an investigation by the Qatar Financial Center Regulatory Authority, and the bank’s lack of integrity in its behavior as a company doing business in the Qatar Financial Center.

This ruling came in August 2019, accusing the bank of deliberately tampering with the Qatari riyal and Qatari government securities and related financial instruments, when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt ignited the Gulf crisis and their boycott of Qatar.

Previous pursuits

In April 2019, the State of Qatar announced the filing of lawsuits against three banks, accusing them of using what it described as “manipulation” of the currency in foreign markets.

A statement issued by the Qatari Government Communication Office said that the cases filed in London and New York are targeting the Luxembourg-based “Havilland” Bank, the UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank, and the Saudi Financial Group “Samba”.

“Bank of Havilland tried to weaken its riyal by offering fraudulent rates on foreign exchange platforms in New York,” the statement said.

He explained that the aim of that step was “to disrupt the indicators and markets that have a large presence of Qatari assets and Qatari investors,” and the investigation began in March 2018, due to suspicion of manipulating those banks.

The success of Qatar Bank

The expert and economic researcher, Abdul Wahid Al-Oubli, believes that the early steps Qatar took, mainly contributed to the failure of the Qatari riyal, despite the great financial pressures it was exposed to.

Al-Oubali told Al-Khaleej Online: “There was a great fluctuation in the exchange rates of the Qatari riyal with the start of the crisis, and it was noticed that some foreign markets had a decrease in the price of the Qatari riyal against the dollar despite the keenness of the Qatar Central Bank and Qatari commercial banks to offer prices close to the fixed value of the price. , Which is 3.64 Qatari Riyals to one dollar. ”

He added, “This matter was met by a rapid move by the Qatar Central Bank, appointing advisers to investigate possible market manipulation, which was a major reason for studying the available methods to confront the war on the Qatari riyal, and working to stabilize the price without its collapse until today.”

He points out that the Qatar Bank’s discovery of the correspondence between the UAE ambassador to America, Yousef Al-Otaiba, and the Havilland Bank in Luxembourg, which outlined a plan to destabilize the Qatari economy, helped take preventive steps for the riyal.

He continued: “Perhaps the additional investigations carried out by the Qatar Central Bank, which also indicated the involvement of First Abu Dhabi Bank and Saudi Samba Bank, as well as Haviland Bank, are what prompted the Qataris to march towards defending their economy, before switching to filing cases to pursue these banks.”

In his speech, he considers that Qatar’s filing of cases in the courts of some countries such as the United States of America, in addition to filing other cases with the World Trade Organization and the International Civil Aviation Authority, “is an indication of the continuation of the Gulf conflict, which is escalating day by day, in contrast to the declared approach of resolving the crisis. “.

Economic plot

In June 2018, an investigative investigation broadcast by “Al-Jazeera” channel revealed data on international markets and exclusive documents and documents that unraveled the threads of a conspiracy against the Qatari economy.

The investigation revealed the entities and people who stood behind this war, one of which was the cessation of circulation of the Qatari currency in the British capital, London.

The investigation stated that Emirati officials used the US bank (Luxembourg-based) Haviland as a financial arm to manipulate the currency and Qatari bonds abroad.

The investigation revealed that the attempts to manipulate the Qatari currency targeted the Qatar Central Bank, to drain its foreign exchange reserves.

In December 2017, the Qatar Central Bank announced that it had opened a legal investigation into the attempts of the blockading countries to harm the Qatari economy by manipulating the currency markets, securities and derivatives.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, air and sea blockade on Qatar on June 5, 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism, which Doha denies, and says it is facing a conspiracy aimed at confiscating its sovereign and national decision.

Maintain the economy

During 2019 and 2020, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, confirmed that his country had overcome the “negative effects” of the boycott imposed on it by four Arab countries, with the Qatari economy making remarkable progress.

In his two speeches before the Shura Council, he said that the economic situation has witnessed a significant improvement, indicating that the GDP at current prices in Qatar grew during 2018 by about 15%, while the non-hydrocarbon GDP grew by about 9%.

Sheikh Tamim reviewed the most important initiatives, projects and policies pursued by his country, which he said: “It shows that we have overcome the negative effects of the blockade, and that we are moving steadily towards achieving the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030.”

He stated that the reports indicate remarkable progress in the field of economic diversification, encouragement of the private sector, increasing the productive capacities of electric generation plants, and establishing an advanced agricultural, animal and fish production system.

He stressed that his country was able to restore the state’s reserves and bring them to higher levels than they were before the boycott, and the Qatari riyal also maintained its stability and value, despite the multiple and systematic attempts to cause its collapse.