Emirates NBD organises community awareness event focusing on safe banking practices for labourers

Dubai, UAE, May 2, 2024: Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye) region, organised an event for labourers at the Polaris Camp, Dubai Investment Park with a focus on safe banking practices, to commemorate Labour Day. The event was aligned with the bank’s United Against Fraud Campaign, aimed at supporting the community in combating fraud and educating customers on fraud prevention.

Emirates NBD’s Labour Day event featured a video screening highlighting safe banking practices, a skit performance on fraud prevention and a quiz following which prizes were distributed. The event ended with distribution of vouchers from a local supermarket close to the camp and dinner. Asian influencer Mamta Sachdeva of ‘Travel with Mamta’ fame, attended the event to engage with labourers and amplify the bank’s efforts in educating them on safe banking practices.

Emirates NBD has pledged to protect customers with programmes, products and solutions as they conduct digital banking transactions by committing a major portion of its AED 1 billion digital transformation investment towards continuing to strengthen the bank's robust infrastructure, digital processes and analytics. In addition, the bank organises regular email and SMS campaigns and posts messages across its social media platforms to help customers recognise new scams by fraudsters and stay alert. Useful tips on safeguarding personal information and safe banking practices are prominently displayed on the bank’s website along with frequent pop-up reminders on the bank’s digital platforms.

The bank’s ongoing initiatives remind customers that fraudsters use any means possible including text messages, emails with links, and calls, rewards, and fake messages and urges people to never share their password, or CVV and verify all communication.

Vijay Bains, Group Chief Sustainability Officer and Group Head of ESG at Emirates NBD, said: "As a national banking champion we target our efforts to protect our customers as they work towards fulfilling their financial objectives. Human error remains one of the largest vulnerabilities for cyberattacks and events like these generate awareness among the labourers who are susceptible to fraud incidents just like any other segment of the UAE population.”

Rohit Garg, Group Head of Business Banking at Emirates NBD, said: “Fraud comes in many forms, from calls impersonating public departments, to delivery messages, suspicious calls from banks, and more. As a homegrown financial institution, we believe in educating our community and our customers on the need to stay vigilant and ways to protect themselves from fraudulent activity. Such an approach to safeguarding personal information and safe banking practices distributed in a light and interactive manner engages the audience and builds awareness.”

Emirates NBD has launched many public service campaigns on safe banking over a span of several years, in partnership with the Dubai Police. Recently the bank collaborated with Dubai Police and Leo Burnett on a campaign themed #theywontsurvive, aimed at raising public awareness of cybersecurity and encouraging customers to take action and actively report fraudulent activity or attempts so that more people are aware and remain vigilant.