Nearly 90% UAE banking customers find account opening too complicated

Nine out of 10 UAE bank account holders think opening a bank account takes too much time and that bank onboarding processes are too complicated. The findings are part of IDnow Middle East’s UAE digital identity proofing and verification report that surveyed over 1,000 people across the Emirates.

Other key discoveries from the public survey included that 82 per cent of bank customers were unhappy with having to go to a branch and physically hand over documents. Meanwhile, 76 per cent of UAE residents want an entirely digital bank account opening process, with that figure rising to 85 per cent amongst higher income groups (with a monthly salary of Dhs25,000 or more). Amongst non-bank account holders, 86 per cent said they had started a bank account application but quit the process because it was too complicated.

IDnow commissioned YouGov to conduct the survey across a representative demographic sample of UAE residents. IDnow wanted to discover customer perceptions about traditional bank account opening which involves manually sharing documents and identity cards in a branch, versus modern digital processes which can allow verification to be performed remotely through a laptop or smartphone. Digital identity verification can reduce bank account approval processes from days or even weeks to just a few minutes.

Oliver Obitayo, chief commercial officer at IDnow said, “Customers across the UAE are crying out for easier ways to open a bank account. We know how deeply UAE banks care about their customers, so these results should be a wake-up call. Over the past few years, we have seen rapid innovation and improvements in the banking sector, and by deploying the right technology the problems of slow, complicated bank account onboarding can quickly become a thing of the past.”

Digital identity proofing and verification can help onboarding for a range of financial services, including but not limited to banking, fintech, buy now-pay later, digital assets and cryptocurrency platforms.

Obitayo continued, “Customers want convenient, quick and entirely digital procedures. They don’t want to carry lots of paperwork to a branch and they value instant account opening that is safe and secure. Effective digital identity verification and document proofing can help to simplify the process for customers and save banks time and money.”

Read: The growth of the fintech sector in the Middle East