UAE & Qatar Banks Chasing American Debts - damaging credit ratings abroad and reporting customers as international fugitives on Interpol's database.
Historically, the Gulf banks have struggled to recover delinquent loans and credit card debts from Americans and Canadians, preferring to take swift action to prevent Americans from leaving the country, often causing their homelessness or incarceration.
If an American or Canadian did leave the country with debt the only option banks had to pressure debtors was to either harass them, their families and employers or to report them to Interpol’s Red Notice database under the category of fraud. Using Interpol for debt collection is an abusive but regular practice and has caused the arrest of numerous bank customers abroad.
Gulf banks are taking it a step further now and seeking to damage the credit rating of customers in their own country. In the US, of course, this can have a significant impact on their ability to live a normal life, even to get a rental property.
“This might seem fair and reasonable, but that would be running on the assumption that banks in these countries operate with integrity”, explains Radha Stirling, who has fought for clients facing bank abuse for more than a decade. “On the contrary, banks operate without ethics, without oversight or regulation in a way that simply would not be permissible in the West.
The Gulf system allows for egregious exploitation and gives the banks open access to criminal law enforcement bodies like Interpol. When a customer loses his employment, banks will often immediately call in a loan and demand payment in full, freezing the bank account until it is. If an employer fails to pay end of service leave, the customer has no option but to flee the country or otherwise, they could end up in jail or permanently travel banned. This would mean they would not be allowed to work but nor would they ever be able to pay their debt. “So many people have ended up in this situation, some of them lying in hospital beds, homeless or in prison over what is clearly a dated practice”, recalls Ms Stirling, citing the tragic case of David Oliver.
“Sometimes, a customer has negotiated a repayment plan with the bank and been diligently adhering to it when the bank suddenly decides to call in the loan in full. Their hope is that the customer will beg his family to bail him out but for most people, that just isn’t possible. In most cases, a customer has been willing to pay and has been in regular contact with the bank but simply needs some flexibility or a temporary reprieve while gaining new employment.
“Banks have been unwilling to agree to reasonable repayment plans even where the customer’s circumstances have been unpreventable (injury, illness etc.). In other cases, the banks have agreed and then without warning, cancelled the plan and opened a criminal case against the cooperating and paying customer, sending them directly to jail.
“Banks will willingly open criminal and civil cases against customers either to jail them or prevent them from returning to their home countries. If they have left the country, the bank will add extortionate legal fees, interest and late charges then quickly seek to damage their credit rating abroad, harass and potentially bankrupt them rather than agreeing a reasonable and achievable repayment plan.
“Interpol is consistently used as a recovery tool by banks like Qatar National Bank (QNB), Emirates NBD (ENBD), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), DIB and even HSBC. We have witnessed people arrested in countries like Italy, Spain, Denmark, Greece and more, ripped from their vehicles or even surrounded at cafés. Pilots and aircrew have not been able to take jobs, people have lost their security clearance, businesses, families and reputations. Some of these actions have been taken for debts of less than $5,000.”
“We help clients prevent Interpol Notices in the first place or if too late, we ensure they are deleted. It’s important to know if there is an active notice; Interpol does not publish them and the banks keep their actions quiet. The consequences can be dire if a customer finds out at a travel gate abroad.”
Interpol | IPEX
Abuse of the Interpol system has been increasing year on year since the beginning of the 21st Century. Non-democratic, Authoritarian, and transitional governments have equal access to utilise Interpol’s mechanisms as stable, democratic states; and Interpol provides no procedures for filtering requests for inclusion of
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Stirling and her organisations have been lobbying for reforms in the Gulf and with Interpol for over a decade. While there have been some significant improvements, the risks have not been eliminated and it’s important to retain professional advice.
Stirling and her team deal with banks and their international debt collection agents on a daily basis for dozens of customers, ensuring that they are safe from escalation and are able to resolve their issues responsibly.
