UAE banks have to be made accountable for admin errors

An ode to remember:
Complain to your bank
and it'll say no
but then it's off to the ombudsman,
where your chances will grow.
Except, here in the UAE there is no such thing as an independent objective financial ombudsman.
Which is why I'm taking matters into my own hands. Calling all bank chief executives, I have a proposition to make and would like to discuss terms of engagement.
The big idea: clients earn from fixing your mistakes.
I put it to you that you will have a much more efficient, streamlined, productive operation if you pay clients for their admin time. You'll have happy customers - not to be sniffed at with competition hotting up - and likely save money too.
This will serve two purposes: one - client information will be up to date. Commence compliance heaven.
Two: the bank gets to focus on banking (what is that these days anyway?) instead of chasing - and having near double-digit numbers of people process one simple thing, not to mention the many man hours customers lose fielding unwanted calls, having to sift through emails or even go into the branch (it sounds simple, but never is).
How it works: when bank staff misplace documents or don't process information in a timely, efficient or correct manner, resulting in clients being fined by said bank, or worse, discovering that they have been reported to the police for non-payments of various kinds - payments that they did make (this really has happened), the bank pays its clients for having to supply the information again, field calls and process various other admin tasks.
The only glitch in my system is: how do we enforce this? I haven't figured that bit out yet. Plus there's the issue of deciding how much the bank must pay. I don't have all the answers, but what I do know is that the system is broken, and that's not OK.
Last week I suggested this idea to my bank in response to them, once again, fining me for not supplying documents I did hand over, in both physical and soft copy, to three different sets of people over the period of many months.
I got a rather shirty letter back stating that they will not look into the matter in hand, nor reverse the new fines - fines that they recently acknowledged were their mistake, stopped charging and paid back a few months ago - until I prove, once again, that I did supply all the information requested.
I am in awe of the slight change in emphasis here: now they want me to prove it, not necessarily to resupply it ...
Do you think it's because I said I would be happy resending the information once my admin fees had been paid - upfront?
So now I'm in a conundrum. Do I run around resubmitting the documents? Or fight it on principle? Come on folks, I need your input on this.
Not only have I done as asked, repeatedly, I've also fielded hours of calls from staff asking all manner of questions, including:
To name the member of staff I had handed the documents over to when I took in the physical original documents (in September).
I'm sure you too have a story to share, and I believe it's not right that any of us become a bank admin officer - over and over and over again.
Getting paid for bank misadmin time is just the minimum. What about compensation for trouble and upset? This is what the UK's financial ombudsman has to say about it: "As well as looking at whether someone's lost out financially as a result of a business's mistake, it's important to recognise the emotional or practical impact."
Their definition of trouble and upset includes: distress, inconvenience, pain and suffering as well as damage to reputation. Everyone I know has been through some, if not all, of these bank-led emotions - and I'll wager a bet that you have too.
So Mr/Ms Bank CEO, are you willing to put your money where your admin is?
Nima Abu Wardeh describes herself using three words: Person. Parent. Pupil. Each day she works out which one gets priority, sharing her journey on finding-nima.com. You can reach her at [e-mail] and on Twitter: @nimaabuwardeh.
[e-mail]
Follow us on Twitter @TheNationalPF