Dubai
Despite economic challenges, 2016 has been an outstanding year for the UAE’s banking sector that saw number of initiatives take shape under the leadership of the UAE Banks Federation (UBF), a professional body representing 48 member banks operating in the UAE.
“2016 has been an outstanding year for the UAE Banks Federation. We were able to considerably sway the direction of the UAE banking sector towards a more conducive and purposeful direction. Member banks were able to receive comprehensive guidance on key initiatives — from raising industry standards and enhancement of customers experience to promoting financial literacy and Emiratisation,” said Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of UBF, in his introduction to the 2016 annual report of the Federation.
The report recognises the collective effort made by the Federation to develop the soon-to-launch Emirates Digital Wallet, an application that is set to accelerate the UAE’s advancement towards a cashless future, as well as the successful implementation of the “Modus Operandi” loan restructuring scheme for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as some of the most notable initiatives during 2016.
It also highlights a proposal to introduce a unified framework for handling customer complaints, aimed at helping improve the customer experience by increasing the degree of transparency and efficiency in customer service, as well as the first ever Financial Literacy competition for university students, which was organised by UBF to promote financial literacy among the country’s youth.
Among the various activities undertaken by the UBF during the year, the annual report makes a special mention of the “Trust Index”, a comprehensive survey that aimed to evaluate the overall measure of consumer trust in the banking and finance sector, with a set of sophisticated parameters. The survey revealed that despite uncertainty at a global economic scale in 2016, consumer perception of the UAE banking sector remained buoyant, with a majority of consumers exhibiting a positive outlook about the banking sector.
