Dubai: Citibank UAE on Sunday reassured its cust-omers on deposits, saying all customer deposits at all its branches in the country are guaranteed by the UAE Government in line with the Federal Cabinet's decision that guarantees bank deposits, including deposits with national banks and foreign banks that have significant operations in the UAE.

The second-biggest Arab economy guaranteed deposits of all local and foreign banks with significant operations in the country on October 13 in a bid to boost confidence in its banking industry amid the global credit crisis. Citi-bank has been operating in the UAE since 1964, it said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday.

Bank of choice

Mohammad Al Shroogi, managing director for the Middle East and chief executive of Citi in the UAE, said: "We remain the bank of choice for millions of depositors worldwide, evident in a strong deposit base [approximately $780 billion at the end of the third quarter] diversified across products and regions, with more than two thirds of it outside the US including the UAE.

"Our universal banking business model has been proven to be robust and has certainly won the approval of major investors.

"Over the past 15 months, Citi has added $75 billion in new capital: $50 billion through public and private offerings and $25 billion from the US government's TARP [Troubled Assets Relief Program]. As a result, Citi maintains a very strong capital and liquidity position and a unique global franchise, including a growing Middle Eastern franchise."

Citi has been in the Arab world for nearly 50 years and continues to view the region as critical to its global franchise. It is currently present in ten Arab countries including Egypt, the UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

Recently, the bank strengthened its regional coverage through key treasury, equity and investment banking appointments in Dubai. It has relocated a global co-head of investment banking to Dubai, and expanded debt markets business in Dubai by transferring from London its co-head of Europe, Middle East and African capital markets to oversee businesses including M&A, leverage and project finance.

Citibank had deposits of Dh8.46 billion in the UAE at the end of 2007, Karim Seifeddine, head of public affairs at Citibank for the Middle East, said in a phone interview yesterday. That gave it a 1.2 per cent share of the UAE's bank deposits of Dh720 billion at the time, according to data on the central bank's website.

- With inputs from Bloomberg

Are you concerned about your bank deposit? Should other banks also issue similar reassurances? Have you faced any trouble while withdrawing from your account? How else can customers be reassured about the safety of their deposits?


Your comments


The above mentioned highlights are quiet encouraging for the customers to deposit their funds in banks.
Majid Pervaiz
Dubai,UAE
Posted: November 24, 2008, 08:36