The banking industry body plans a crackdown on misleading advertising as part of a series of self-regulating measures.
The UAE Banks Federation said it would appoint an independent monitor to enforce its code of conduct charter and create a new committee to oversee its 50 member banks and ensure customers are not misled by false advertising claims about interest rates and fees.
"The creation of a marketing committee by the federation and the commissioning of independent monitoring of advertising are tangible actions to reinforce observance of the federation's code of conduct," said AbulAziz Al Ghurair, the chairman of the federation and chief executive of Mashreq.
“[That is] namely that member banks should seek to behave in a transparent and honest way in their marketing communications.”
The UAE Banks Federation outlined in November 2013 a code of ethics for lenders with a focus on consumer protection. The federation’s code of conduct also includes customer service, relationships between banks, and management. The federation said at the time that it would rely on banks collectively regulating themselves without help from the Central Bank.
There were also plans to create a website that would allow consumers to expose lenders that provide bad service and products. Cracking down on overzealous bankers seeking to fulfil targets unethically is also on the federation’s code.
The charter comes at a time when banks are generating increasing revenues from personal lending products.
That is because a long stretch of low interest rates has made mortgages, personal and car loans more attractive.
Credit cards, often a bank’s most lucrative product, have also proliferated as the cost of living in the UAE rises.
This has meant that profit banks receive from fee income has increased, although often at the expense of clients.
“You have all sorts of charges that banks charge to customers,” said Taher Safieddine, an analyst at the Dubai-based investment bank Shuaa Capital. “It’s definitely a positive step.
“We’ve seen central banks in the region especially becoming more and more aware of capping fees that banks charge to customers, and the brightest example is what Saudi Arabia has been doing over the past two years,” he said. “They are becoming more strict on banks, capping fees that are being charged, fees on loans, fees on credit cards because banks have found more or less a way to add layers of extra charges on customers.”
Separately, at its meeting in Dubai the banking federation's council also discussed – as proposed by the UAE Central Bank – to create a Higher Sharia Authority to complement and oversee the work of Sharia boards of individual Islamic banks in the country and to make sure that there is consistency among UAE banks when it comes to the development of products.
The banking federation council also added four new committees for auditing, operations, payments, IT and fraud at its meeting, it said.
mkassem@thenational.ae
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Company%20Profile
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EU's%2020-point%20migration%20plan
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Challenge Cup result:
1. UAE 3 faults
2. Ireland 9 faults
3. Brazil 11 faults
4. Spain 15 faults
5. Great Britain 17 faults
6. New Zealand 20 faults
7. Italy 26 faults
Traits of Chinese zodiac animals
Tiger:independent, successful, volatile
Rat:witty, creative, charming
Ox:diligent, perseverent, conservative
Rabbit:gracious, considerate, sensitive
Dragon:prosperous, brave, rash
Snake:calm, thoughtful, stubborn
Horse:faithful, energetic, carefree
Sheep:easy-going, peacemaker, curious
Monkey:family-orientated, clever, playful
Rooster:honest, confident, pompous
Dog:loyal, kind, perfectionist
Boar:loving, tolerant, indulgent
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The%20specs
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The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
The bio
Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions
School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Dream City: San Francisco
Hometown: Dubai
City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
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- Westminster, London
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Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”