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  • Article 3: Responsible Conduct

    1. 3.1 Licensed Financial Institutions must monitor and uphold high ethical standards and practices when dealing with Customers.
       
    2. 3.2 Licensed Financial Institutions must prohibit and prevent abusive sales, marketing and pricing practices.
       
    3. 3.3 Licensed Financial Institutions must ensure disclosure, transparency and avoid anti-competitive and discriminatory practices and at all times have the controls in place to identify and manage conflicts of interest.
       
    4. 3.4 Licensed Financial Institutions must provide Customers with accurate, sufficient and consistent information for Customers to easily understand and to be able to compare products and/or services with those offered by other Licensed Financial Institutions.
       
    5. 3.5 Licensed Financial Institutions must not impose practices or barriers that prevent Customers from easily switching their relationship(s) between Licensed Financial Institutions at reasonable and disclosed costs and within a reasonable timeframe.
       
    6. 3.6 Licensed Financial Institutions are encouraged to engage with and put in place appropriate interface mechanisms with all available SME support schemes (such as credit guarantee schemes, movable collateral registry system or SME credit scoring services) provided by any Federal or Emirate-level government agencies and development banks.
       
    7. 3.7 Licensed Financial Institutions must ensure that all Authorised Agents comply with the applicable Articles of this Regulation.
       
    8. 3.8 Licensed Financial Institutions must, with due skill, care and diligence, act fairly, honestly and professionally in their relationship with Customers.
       
    9. 3.9 Licensed Financial Institutions must establish and maintain effective policies, procedures, systems and controls to avoid any potential, perceived or actual Conflict of Interest.
       
    10. 3.10 For inherent conflicts of interest, Licensed Financial Institutions must have controls in place and must provide full and proper disclosure to Customers prior to any agreements or commitments.
       
    11. 3.11 Licensed Financial Institutions must ensure ethical behavior of staff towards Customers by developing an internal code of conduct for the staff, providing regular relevant training and monitoring Complaints.
       
    12. 3.12 Licensed Financial Institutions must ensure that the staff who directly interact with Customers will competently, efficiently and professionally discharge their duties and provide prospective and existing Customers with the information and services they are entrusted to provide or sell.
       
    13. 3.13 Licensed Financial Institutions staff dealing with Customers must have sufficient knowledge of the products and/or services being offered.
       
    14. 3.14 Licensed Financial Institutions must ensure that staff dealing with Customers are suitably qualified to provide advice and carry out transactions.
       
    15. 3.15 Licensed Financial Institutions are responsible for the actions of their staff. Licensed Financial Institutions’ must maintain appropriate monitoring of staff in relation to their standards for business conduct and to ensure full compliance with codes of conduct, laws and regulations.
       
    16. 3.16 Licensed Financial Institutions must not adopt abusive or unreasonable contractual terms.
       
    17. 3.17 Licensed Financial Institutions must monitor for misleading or aggressive sales practices and exploitation of Customers due to their vulnerabilities, apathy or lack of knowledge.
       
    18. 3.18 Licensed Financial Institutions must provide impartial credit counselling services to their borrowers/financees who face difficulties with servicing their debt.
       
    19. 3.19 Licensed Financial Institutions must establish clear standards and procedures that prohibit excessive pressure on Customers in collection of repayments or debts due.

    • Account Opening

      1. 3.20 Licensed Financial Institutions should seek to have appropriate systems in place to ensure the opening of a Customer Bank Account can be completed within 3 business days in instances where the Licensed Financial Institution has assessed the profile of the applicant to present low money laundering and terrorist financing risks, and can demonstrate that it is satisfied with standard customer due diligence documentation.
         
      2. 3.21 Licensed Financial Institutions must have clear, transparent and consistent disclosure regarding the documentary requirements for the opening of a Customer Bank Account.
         
      3. 3.22 The requirement to open a Customer Bank Account does not constitute the requirement to permit any type of transaction until the Licensed Financial Institution has undertaken all appropriate due diligence including those required for Financial Crime Compliance including the risk based approach and sanctions screening required by the Decree Federal Law No. 20 of 2018 on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations and the Cabinet Decision No. (10) of 2019 Concerning the Implementing Regulation of Decree Law No. (20) of 2018 On Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations (as amended from time to time ).
         
      4. 3.23 Licensed Financial Institutions may receive funds for opening a Bank Account, but the funds are to be blocked until the requirements for opening Bank Accounts are fulfilled, including those relating to Financial Crime Compliance. Customer consent must be obtained in such cases.
         
      5. 3.24 Licensed Financial Institutions should record SME account-opening requests registered through all channels (branches, phone banking, automatic teller machines etc.) The register should have details of requests received, accounts opened, rejected, pending less or greater than 30 days. ). The report must be regularly shared with Senior Management and available for regulatory examination on request.