Held To Ransom

Rather than pay salary transfer charges, Emirates NBD customers should vote with their feet and bank elsewhere.

Do banks the world over generally treat their customers with such contempt or is this ‘privilege’ reserved for just UAE residents? In a move that will surely discourage people to stay with or join Emirates NBD, the bank is reportedly set to start fining customers if their salary transfers are delayed.

It’s understood that customers will be charged AED75 for any delay in transfer, with a quarterly fine of AED105 on Classic Accounts if no salary appears for three months. Meanwhile, Plus and Select account holders will receive an AED225 fine per quarter.

So, through no fault of their own, the bank’s customers could be fined if employers fail to transfer their monthly pay cheques on time (no monthly deadline has been clarified for when salaries must appear in people’s accounts). To add insult to injury, customers who receive salaries in cash and deposit the funds into their accounts could also be penalised.

It will be interesting to hear how the “biggest UAE bank by assets” justifies implementing such ridiculous charges. But it’s unlikely Emirates NBD will even bother offering an explanation for what many might consider a callous money-making scheme.

Looking at the timing, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that Emirates NBD is desperately trying to boost revenues after seeing shares fall to the lowest close in two years on January 31. This follows the bank’s recent decision to drop ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, possibly for fear of receiving a downgrade.

Like most banks in this region, Emirates NBD has been hit by the financial downturn. But penalising customers by introducing arbitrary fines is a shortsighted measure. With so many other banks operating in the UAE, people can simply vote with their feet and shift their money elsewhere. If this happens, then Emirates NBD chiefs will only have themselves to blame.