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70% of customers have trust in their banks

Dubai - Study says banking customers in the Emirates are five times more likely to say their view of banks has improved in past six months.

Almost 70 per cent of customers in the UAE have a high level of trust in their banks, especially compared to customers in other international markets, a study revealed on Monday.
The study by the UAE Banks Federation, the professional representative body for the UAE's banks, said banking customers in the Emirates are five times more likely to say their view of banks has improved rather than worsened in the past six months.
The study, commissioned with Brunswick Insight and Ipsos Observer to track the level of trust among the country's banking customers, is based on responses from 1,040 adults with bank accounts who are resident in the UAE. The results of this study will form the basis of a trust index deriving from further surveys in future, the UAE Banks Federation said.
The survey was conducted in August and the sample of respondents reflected a representative cultural and gender mix. The interviews were conducted using a variety of channels to ensure an optimum level of representativeness.
The survey found that while banks can do more to understand customers needs, to offer them products that they want, and to offer more reasonable fees and charges, only a quarter (23 per cent) of expatriates believe banks at home are better than those in the UAE. "As the organisation which advocates best practice for banks in the UAE, the Federation has a duty to gauge whether the efforts that banks make to meet their customers' needs are effective and being felt by their customers," said AbdulAziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of the UAE Banks Federation.
"More importantly, we want to know where the banks need to up their game, from the point of view of their customers. This project forms the beginning of a process whereby we will be able to better understand whether we are improving our service performance or not, and how we can pinpoint the actions that need to be taken," he added.
"While we are delighted to see that these results bear out our own expectations, we accept that there is still room for improvement, not least in terms of giving customers what they really want, and in delivering it in a way that provides them with the best value," he said.
The findings of the survey were presented to the recent meeting of the Federation's CEO Advisory Council, and agreement was reached on an action plan to communicate the outcome of the survey and to address areas identified in which the banking sector can improve its reputation among its customers.
- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com