Dubai: Emirates Central Bank Will Help Smaller Banks Develop E-Banking Services

by Lorys Charambolous, Tax-news.com, Cyprus

16 April 2001

We reported last week on the discussion of e-commerce security issues at the Arab E-Banking and E-Security Summit, which took place in Dubai. Aside from security, the Emirates Central Bank said it would help smaller banks in Dubai and the other emirates develop their e-banking facilities in order to better compete with larger banks.

Speaking at the conference, Central Bank governor Sultan Sultan bin Nasser al-Suwaidi said: 'The smaller banks would not be able to establish this system on their own due to limited resources. The system will enable them to offer e-banking and put them on a par with larger banks.'

He said that the Arab banks needed to wholeheartedly embrace information technology if they were to be successful: 'Arab banks need to provide e-banking to their customers and they need to put in place the electronic infrastructure necessary for e-commerce and need to know how to take advantage of the Internet,' he said. 'Unless they improve services to meet the challenge ... residents of the UAE will choose to bank with overseas organisations and it will take away part of the captive business of UAE banks.'

Many emirate banks do believe that online banking is the way foward and have no doubt been swept along by the success of the Dubai Internet City (DIC), which aims to establish Dubai as the e-commerce hub of the Gulf. Only last month, Emirates Bank Group launched an Internet-based banking service, MeBank, which is based in the DIC and offers online banking in a cafe-style environment. Now that the Emirates Central Bank has pledged its support for the smaller banks in developing similar services, it is only a matter of time before online banking services begin to proliferate in the Gulf.

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