Business as usual for private firms

Dubai: Banks and financial services industry see little change from the shift in the government weekend to Friday-Saturday, although some manpower adjustments may be necessary to meet higher demand on the new weekend.

Ahmad Al Serkal, group head of human resources at Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), said the bank had informed all employees about the shift in the weekend and the changeover in September is expected to be smooth.

"From a HR and administration perspective the new weekend system does not affect the bank since we provide services 24/7. What is important is customer satisfaction and in this regard DIB is taking utmost care to provide best-in-class services during the transition period."

A spokesman for Standard Chartered bank said the shift in the weekend would have no impact, but the bank was positioning itself aggressively to serve its regional and institutional clients.

UAE banks currently work six days a week, Saturday to Thursday, but customer services like phone banking and ATM kiosks are open seven days a week and the change in weekend will not impact the services provided to the public.

Some banks follow a five-day week internally and rotate staff to remain open on six days.

"Due to the new weekend our customer service units are expected to witness greater crowd on Saturdays and we would be monitoring to ensure we react to the demand," a spokesman for HSBC said.

A fund manager at a leading nationalised bank said that the financial services industry to a very large extent tries to match its weekend with the Western world.

"The treasury and the international brokerage departments of a lot of the large banks rotate their staff internally so that they are manned on all days.

"The change in the weekend will reduce the gap between the UAE and the Western weekend by a day and this could mean that more banks will be more involved with international markets," he said.