Dubai: UAE consumers’ trust levels with banks across the county remained “steady” this year despite economic uncertainties, according to the UAE Banks Federation (UBF).
The organisation representing 49 banks in the UAE reported on Tuesday that its latest Trust Index remained robust at 68 per cent.
The majority of banking customers (73 per cent) are likewise confident about the efforts being made by banks against cybercrime activity, while an almost equal number (72 per cent) rated their impression towards banks as “very positive.”
“Despite economic uncertainties, this year’s Trust Index indicates that perception about the UAE’s banking sector is healthy and steady as evaluated against a set of crucial parameters in the survey and that overall trust remains high among customers,” said Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, chairman of UAE Banks Federation.
During times of uncertainty, earning customer confidence proves to be difficult, as people tend to develop a sense of distrust towards their financial services provider. A global study conducted by public relations firm Edelman showed that trust in banks declined significantly in 2012, just a few years after the global recession. By 2016, however, global trust in banks improved, but the financial services industry remains the world’s least trusted.
In the UAE survey, it was found that a huge number of customers (82 per cent this year compared to 78 per cent in 2015) still believe that banks are able to do well in terms of keeping up with digital innovation. About seven in ten (73 per cent) also agreed that banks do make significant contributions to the UAE’s economic growth.
The UBF study, however, admitted that there is room for improvement in areas such as "publicly communicating responsiveness to changing regulations, providing good returns to investors to help them grow their wealth and educating customers and setting right expectations upfront."
“Building on the positive findings from the survey, the federation aims to encourage banks to achieve a highest level of customer satisfaction through world-class levels of customer service.”
The Trust Index was launched in 2015. This year’s edition was based on the responses of 1,530 banking customers from different nationalities.
