Wednesday, 03 December 2008
updated 1 minute ago
01:04 UAE time

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77% unhappy with banks' reaction to ATM fraud

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ATM FRAUD: A majority of people who took part in our poll were unhappy with their bank's response. (Getty Images)

A large majority of customers were unhappy with the way their bank dealt with the ATM fraud to hit the UAE, according to the results of an Arabian Business poll.

Banks in the UAE announced they were introducing new security measures and warned customers to change debit and credit card codes after fraudsters used counterfeit cards to withdraw money from accounts last week.

Lloyds TSB, HSBC, Citibank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Dubai Bank are among lenders that sent statements warning customers of the threat in recent days after a spree of fraudulent withdrawals both inside and outside of the UAE.

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But 77 percent of people who took part in our online poll said they were not happy with the way they had been treated as customers during the fraud scare.

Of those, 45 percent claimed they had been left in the dark by their bank and had received no information about whether their account was affected by the criminal activity.

For another 32 percent, the action of their banks during the financial scam was the final straw for customers. They told Arabian Business that they were planning to switch bank as soon as possible because they were fed up with their bank's lack of customer service.

Only five percent of respondents said their bank had acted "excellently" during the crisis and had put them fully at ease about the security of the money they had with the bank.

Another 17 percent of people said they had been sent a warning SMS by bank officials and were given good advice on how best to combat the criminals.

Some of the banks have promised to reimburse customers who have lost money while others have resorted to blocking customer transactions in some overseas locations to limit the problem.

It was not clear how much money had been stolen from UAE account-holders, but Dubai Bank said it had temporarily blocked international use of its automated teller machines after 42 of its customers were affected.

It is not the first time that banking services have come under fire from Arabian Business readers. In August, 80 percent of poll respondents said they were unhappy with the way they, as customers, were treated by bank chiefs.

The widespread criticism came after figures were released revealing that banks in the GCC are losing millions of pounds due to poor customer service.

A study recently conducted by AT Kearney discovered while half of all UAE nationals consider their customer service experience neutral or negative, the same figure was 90 percent or higher for Western expats.

In our poll, 63 percent of respondents branded the banking service they had received in the region the worst they had ever received while another 17 percent said that while banks were helpful initially, once accounts had been set up the customer service disappeared.

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