Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Turkey) region, serves its customers (individuals, businesses, governments, and institutions) and helps them realise their financial objectives through a range of banking products and services including retail banking, corporate and institutional banking, Islamic banking, investment banking, private banking, asset management, global markets and treasury, and brokerage operations. The Group is a key participant in the global digital banking industry with 97% of all financial transactions and requests conducted outside of its branches. The Group also operates Liv., the lifestyle digital bank by Emirates NBD, with close to half a million users, it continues to be the fastest-growing bank in the region.
Emirates NBD contributes to the construction of a sustainable future as an active participant and supporter of the UAE’s main development and sustainability initiatives, including financial wellness and the inclusion of people of determination. Emirates NBD was also an early supporter to Dubai Can sustainability initiative, a city-wide initiative aimed to reduce use of single-use plastic bottled water.
How would you describe your bank's role in SMEs business journey considering their importance in the economy?
SMEs form the backbone of the UAE’s economy and are a critical component for a stable GDP in the region. Emirates NBD has always been committed to empowering the growth of SMEs and is the largest bank in UAE that supports SME businesses from start-ups to well established businesses. It is noteworthy that one in four SMEs in the UAE choose Emirates NBD as their primary bank.
Emirates NBD aims to be a one-stop-shop for SMEs, catering to all their business requirements across multiple products and services in UAE, KSA and Egypt.
We continue to support the SME community by:
- Offering convenient business banking transactional account packages that are customized as per each SME businesses need and requirementt
- Facilitating full transactional banking via Mobile Banking and Online services
- Providing financial support by lending to respective SME sectors basis their latest financials and business needs with special offerings for UAE national business owners
- As a testament of our everlasting support to SME businesses and Startups and our responsibility towards development of UAE economy, Emirates NBD became the official premier banking partner of the Global Expo 2020 event. As a result of this celebrated partnership, Emirates NBD developed a customized business account package named Expo 2020 which was specifically developed to support Expo 2020 merchants and businesses registered on the Expo 2020 Online Marketplace. This package offered SME customers access to Emirates NBD state of the art online banking platform and its range of products, services & banking solutions with a zero monthly average balance requirement. The account package also involved favorable pricing and privileges on transactions, trade finance, working capital, FX and commercial loans aimed to support the growth and development of companies registered to do business with Expo 2020 Dubai.
- In addition, Emirates NBD has contributed ~ USD 1 Billion in funding to SMEs to support their working capital, Opex and Capex needs as well as to boost their business volumes by exploring and enhancing their sales volumes
Why do you think your bank deserves to be awarded the SME Bank of the Year?
In 2022, Emirates NBD Business Banking achieved tremendous growth and success supporting SMEs with its expertise across the below parameters:
- Proposition and offerings:
- The bank opened more than 7000 new business accounts for new SMEs and start-ups, ranging from low balance to high-end balance account packages, all including a host of features and benefits for business owners and their entities.
- Given the continuous focus of boosting the UAE economy, we saw a 23% increase in our lending facilities towards SMEs compared to the previous year. This was primarily warranted to our new dedicated asset centre approach including the expansion of our asset coverage teams in the region and a new team for Trade and Working Capital and Real Estate Lending..
- We have also revamped and enhanced our business loans and credit lending programs to appeal to a wide range of small SMEs with the end goal of capturing a wider segments on lending appetite.
- Digital proposition and adoption:
- Emirates NBD offers 100% digital acquisition of ‘New To Bank Sole Proprietorship SMEs’ (companies owned and managed by Sole proprietors) onboarded via our unique Mobile App E20, providing SME customers an instant business account number within 10 minutes.
- Our SME customers have access to our world class online banking platform, businessONLINE, ensuring coverage of all their banking transactional requirements ranging from financial dashboards of their business accounts, remittances, cash management solutions, to newly launched propositions and solutions for API connectivity and H2H services - all completely free of charge and applicable in all markets where Emirates NBD Business Banking has presence such as UAE, KSA and Egypt.
- The businessONLINE proposition also offers a dedicated support team for addressing any queries raised by our online banking and mobile banking customers.
- Market share
- Emirates NBD has acquired 30% of market share from all UAE SME businesses deposits amongst all UAE SME banks.
- The bank is also considered the largest lender to SMEs in UAE region for Fleet Finance with our unique partnerships with leading auto dealers in the UAE.
- Process excellence:
- The bank introduced a tablet-based approach for our assisted account opening applications through our dedicated relationship managers.
- We also offer digital onboarding for new customers via our mobile app
- For better customer experience, we have revamped our phone banking by adding new features and services for the automated voice recognition during the caller journey
- Focus on customer experience
- Provision of a hybrid premium service model offering SMEs the option to bank digitally or through physical branches. SME customers can reach us not only via online banking or the Mobile app, but also through our dedicated Business Banking centers and wide distribution network in UAE, KSA and Egypt.
- Review of processes to further streamline and improve efficiency, with straight through processing for important requests.
- Dedicated call center number only for SMEs
- Provision of internal help desk for our coverage teams to support them for their day-to-day information.
- Streamlined process for SME customers to update their KYC enabling faster and effective remediation of their details in the bank’s records.
- In 2022 we conducted more 12 engagement events with our customers called “Happiness Days” within our +10 dedicated business centres located across the UAE
Briefly describe, what are top 3 projects/achievements delivered by your bank in the last 18 months for SME customers?
SME sector is a major driver to the growth of the national economy and supporting the SME sector is a top priority for Emirates NBD. The bank offers a wide range of business banking products and services tailored to meet the needs of companies of various sizes and backgrounds, supported by best-in-class customer service.
Emirates NBD continues to support the UAE, KSA and Egypt SME markets by playing our role as market leaders, with a dedicated focus on lending to businesses. To increase our footprint and reach, we have taken a number of steps ranging from policy changes to increasing our overall sales appetite, as a result of which our lending facilities towards SMEs increased by 23% compared to the previous year.
- Enhanced customer support
- Providing a customer-centric banking experience remains a key focus for the bank. We have taken quantum leaps with respect to enhancement and streamlining of our overall processes, and by creating convenient avenues for our business banking customers to reach out to us for support such as a dedicated helplines and internal helpdesks.
- Emirates NBD Business Banking conducts monthly customer events at our dedicated business centers across the UAE called “Happiness Day” events. Here, we meet customers, listen to their feedback and address their queries, concerns and complaints on the spot supported by our product specialists and product owners. These events have considerably improved the results of our overall customer experience management program.
- As a result of our continuous focus on providing the best standards of customer experience, our NPS has increased by 19% in 2022, compared to the previous year.
- Digital Onboarding: Opening Business Account for New To Bank SMEs
- As a digital-first bank we are committed to offering our customers innovative digital-first banking solutions that simplify banking and enhance their banking experience.
- During 2022, Emirates NBD Business Banking opened more than 7000 new business accounts for SMEs and start-ups, of which 93% of accounts applications were onboarded digitally.
- Emirates NBD offers 100% digital acquisition of ‘New To Bank Sole Proprietorship SMEs’ (companies owned and managed by Sole proprietors) onboarded via our unique Mobile App E20, providing an instant business account number to SME customers within only 10 minutes.
- In addition, we launched customer self-onboarded digital application for all types of SMEs, enabling them to onboard from the place of their convenience, without visiting a physical branch or business centre. The self-onboarded digital journey is integrated with UAE government bodies (Trade license issuing authorities and Ministry of Interior and ID federal authorities) via API connectivity for liveness checks and verification of all applicants. This has also contributed to a reduction in the end-to-end turnaround time for opening new business accounts for customers by 40%, as it also integrated with our developed AML and compliance scoring module.
- For added convenience, we have developed and introduced a paperless approach for our assisted account opening applications through our dedicated relationship managers via onboarding new customers though tablets. This enables account opening without the requirement of any physical constitutional documentation offering a turnaround time of 3 working days for end-to-end business account opening for low-risk clients.
- Digital Proposition & Adoption: Online Banking and Mobile App Channels
- Our SME customers have access to our world class online banking platform, businessONLINE, ensuring coverage of all their banking transactional requirements ranging from financial dashboards of their business accounts, remittances, cash management solutions, to newly launched propositions and solutions for API connectivity and H2H services - all completely free of charge and applicable in all markets where Emirates NBD Business Banking has presence such as UAE, KSA and Egypt.
- Taking our online banking offering one step further, we launched smartTRADE, our trade finance portal. This allows customers to manage all their trade financing requirements in just a few clicks while offering a convenient customer experience. Using smartTRADE customers can place their trade requests for letters of credit, guarantees, trade loan requests etc. and receive real time updates on their initiate trade finance transactions through email and SMS notifications. smartTRADE has helped customers make more informed decisions, giving them a competitive advantage in challenging global markets.
- Our businessONLINE proposition also offers a dedicated support team available to address queries from online banking and mobile banking customers. We also enhanced our phone banking offering by adding new features and services for the automated voice recognition during the caller journey for a better customer experience.
Find out more
- ENBD Business Banking Website:
https://www.emiratesnbd.com/en/business-banking
- We have created online banking customer videos for supporting them on online banking transactions as learning guide:
https://businessonline.emiratesnbd.com/demo/index.html
- We always enhancing our customer services and experience as we have also developed a Relationship Manager survey for our customers o rate their interactions with their relationship managers and share such feedback with the management:
https://legacy.emiratesnbd.com/en/survey/rm-signature-2021/?utm_websource=mainsite
- We have created varieties of Business Banking packages that suits each business financial needs:
https://www.emiratesnbd.com/en/business-banking/business-packages
