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Mirza Ashraf Beg

The Archive

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Every essay and shared reading since 2017 — searchable by subject, tag and full text.

Finance & Markets

The Rate You Are Tested At: Why Banks Stress a Mortgage Above the Price They Charge, and Why Every UAE Household Should Do the Same to Itself

Industry reporting this week says UAE banks are likely to lift the stress-test rates they use to assess mortgage eligibility, so some buyers will qualify for less even as headline rates barely move. In this CEO Sunday Editorial, Mirza Ashraf Beg explains why banks test at a rate they never charge, what Thursday’s global equity selloff revealed about deposit funds held in markets, and the five-line

12 min read

Finance & Markets

Mortgaged Rental Property in the UAE: What to Do When the Rent No Longer Covers the Instalment

Many UAE landlords bought on the assumption that the rent would carry the mortgage. With the UAE Base Rate at 3.90% and rents softening in several communities, that assumption deserves a proper review. This MPCL deep dive explains how to measure the true monthly gap, what a lender looks at when a rental property is under pressure, and the structural options an owner should understand before decidi

10 min read

Finance & Markets

Single-Income Households and UAE Mortgages: How to Stress-Test for an Income Interruption

In the UAE, a mortgage is usually carried by one salary, one employer and one visa. That is a concentration risk most households never write down. This MPCL deep dive walks through a practical income-interruption stress test: how many months you can carry the instalment, which dates matter, what the bank will actually ask, and the options that only exist if you prepare them in advance.

9 min read

Finance & Markets

The Week After the Headline: What a Treasury Desk Knows That Most Households Don’t

Rates moved on Tuesday and the headlines moved on by Thursday. In this Sunday Editorial, Mirza Ashraf Beg draws on his years in banking to explain what treasury desks do in the quiet week after a rate change, and why the same three habits, knowing your positions, knowing your dates and separating liquidity from wealth, are what keep UAE households calm when the next headline arrives.

9 min read

Finance & Markets

Fed Week and Your UAE Mortgage: How a US Rate Decision Reaches Your EMI — and What You Can Actually Control

Every Fed decision makes UAE mortgage headlines, but the path from Washington to your EMI runs through the dirham peg, the CBUAE base rate, EIBOR and — most importantly — your own reset date and margin. This deep dive explains the transmission plainly, without forecasts, and sets out what a UAE homeowner can actually control before the next review.

8 min read