Several banks of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has instructed their branches to stop issuing new loans to Gulf Air's non-flying staff, local newspaper Gulf News reported on Wednesday.

The move was taken after the Bahrain-based carrier announced on Tuesday that it would offer an early retirement scheme to its Bahraini and Omani staff, and also reduce the number of non-flying expatriate employees.

Most banks insisted that it was a standard credit warning that follows any major corporate restructuring, the report said.

"In view of the uncertainty that exists on the identity and the number of employees being laid off by the company, we have decided suspend all credit facilities to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals and expatriate employees of Gulf Air's non-flying operations staff until a clear picture emerges," a warning issued by a local bank to its branches was quoted as saying.

"We act on market intelligence and advise our staff to exercise caution when we hear about any uncertainty," an official with a Dubai-based bank said.

Source: Xinhua