The UAE Banks Federation (UBF) has announced that it has secured the support of the Central Bank for its initiative that aims to develop a unified framework to handle customer complaints, a report said.

The UBF is a professional body representing 48 member banks operating in the UAE, reported Wam, the Emirates official news agency.

"The proposed framework was developed as part of the UBF’s continued efforts to enhance customer experience, as well as bring higher levels of transparency and efficiency in addressing the concerns of the bank customers in the UAE. The Central Bank’s blessing for the framework paves the way for the country-wide implementation of this landmark initiative, which is in line with global best practices. It will ensure that customers' concerns, rights and interests are taken care of and protected," Abdulaziz Al Ghurair, chairman of UBF, said.

As an expression of its commitment to customer satisfaction and happiness, and to ensure consistent service excellence, the UBF has unveiled ‘Service Promise’. This is a set of guidelines that set standards for good banking practices for the UAE’s banks to observe when dealing with complaints from customers. While the Service Promise is not a legislation, member banks have agreed to adopt and honour its obligations.

"The purpose of the Service Promise is to upgrade the quality of service that bank customers across the UAE will receive when they file a complaint about a product or service. By providing a set of guidelines and adequate quality assurance to customers, the Service Promise will raise the industry standards and ensure standardised processes and experiences across banks, as well as help encourage consumer confidence in the banking industry," Al Ghurair noted.

The Service Promise is built around five guiding principles transparency, fairness, empathy, reliability and accessibility which the Federation views as the core to daily banking operations.

"The guiding principles are designed to ensure that banks in the UAE conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with the highest ethical standards and demonstrates the banking industry’s aspirations to be in line with global best practices for the way banks attend to consumer complaints. As a banking ecosystem, we are committed to operating according to this Service Promise and uphold our five guiding principles while handling customer complaints," Al Ghurair added.

Customers will be able to lodge a complaint through a variety of channels, including through the call centre, branch, internet and mobile banking, e-mail and web complaint forms, and the social media. The bank will notify the complainant of the receipt of the complaint within two business days of the submission, and if the complainant has not been provided with a resolution by then, he/she will be provided an estimated resolution time within four business days. If the bank is unable to solve the complaint within 60 days, the complainant will be provided with information about their options for external escalation.