A SUPPLEMENT TO EUROMONEY/MARCH 1998: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The leading financial institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) positively bristle with the state-of-the-art technology that enables them to offer the latest products and services to their customers. Internet websites, telephone banking, point-of-sale operations, automatic teller machines and sophisticated back-office computers are all taken for granted. Management structures have been modernized as well, with credit assessment increasingly conducted at banks' head offices and branches serving as retail showrooms.
These developments will help the banks to build their retail and investment services and look for business opportunities in the rest of the Middle East and beyond rather than focusing on the domestic market. Bankers believe these business areas will play an increasing role in the future as the banks diversify away from their core activities of trade and project finance.
The benefits of this approach have been seen over the past year as the banks have taken advantage of a vibrant UAE economy and produced sharply increased profits while investing significantly in technology. According to the central bank, preliminary figures show that the profits of local banks were up by 26.1% and those of foreign banks rose by 24.6%.