UAE lenders become remote in more ways than one

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank bought the retail arm of Barclays in the UAE this year. Silvia Razgova / The National

With retail banking at its most competitive in the UAE, banks are focusing on improvements in technology to allow customers to complete almost any banking transaction remotely.

Lenders are also offering ever- faster loan approval and processing times to lure in customers.But despite technological advancements, customers still feel neglected.

This is the assertion in our special “Banking in Perspective” coverage, a new bi-annual analysis of the banking sector. We have evaluated four key areas in the performance of UAE banks this year: customer service, banking trends, Emiratisation and SME lending.

And we want to hear your thoughts on our conclusions.

From our research it appears that thanks to improvements in technology, access to banking has improved but customers still crave face-to-face interaction to resolve niggling complaints such as failure to change a correspondence address.

When it comes to Emiratisation, banks are working hard to recruit and retain talent through measures such as flexible working hours and in-house training.

Finally, in our analysis of SME lending, UAE banks are open to financing smaller companies but they expect potential borrowers to have proper governance in place and be able to generate high-enough returns to cover repayments.

The second instalment of our analysis of the sector’s trends and customer service performance will feature before the end of the year.

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