As a leading banking group in the MENAT region, Emirates NBD plays a pivotal role in empowering SMEs—the backbone of the UAE’s economy. With one in four SMEs in the country choosing Emirates NBD as their primary banking partner, the bank offers a comprehensive suite of financial solutions, digital banking innovations, and tailored advisory services.
In 2024, Emirates NBD reinforced its commitment to SMEs with AED 3 billion in incremental funding, a 60% increase in lending facilities, and the launch of cutting-edge digital solutions. From seamless business account openings to AI-driven customer support and a hybrid banking model, the bank continues to drive financial inclusion and business growth across the UAE, KSA, and Egypt.
“One in four SMEs in the UAE choose Emirates NBD as their primary bank—a testament to our commitment to their success.”
How would you describe your bank’s role in the SMEs business journey considering their importance in the economy?
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 realize 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.
SMEs form the backbone of the UAE’s economy and are a critical sector 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 caters to the entire customer segment
- 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.
In addition, Emirates NBD has contributed a further AED 3 billion in incremental funding to SMEs in 2024 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 2024, 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 13,000 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 60% increase in our lending facilities, 10% growth in Revenue, 7% growth in Net Profit towards SMEs compared to the previous year. This was primarily warranted to the growth of our asset lending book, expansion of our FX & Trade relationships through fee reduction campaigns
- Supporting MSMEs and Startups with the growth of our digital-only Connect Package, a package with no minimum balance requirement. Following their growth, we support their journey with more comprehensive packages, eventually reaching Platinum with premium offerings to meet the greater needs of larger entities.
Digital proposition and adoption:
- Emirates NBD offers 100% digital acquisition of ‘New to Bank SMEs’ onboarded via our Digital Customer Onboarding Journey.
- 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 broadening of our Digital Services portfolio and their successful adoption is underlined by the launch of 49 new services on businessONLINE with an 83% adoption, with many services being instantly delivered; parallelly, we continue to offer a dedicated support team for addressing any queries raised by our online banking and mobile banking customers.
- Business Banking has launched its Digital Onboarding Journey in KSA, expanding our Digital Journey in the Kingdom to support our growing customer base
Market share
- Emirates NBD maintains and actively manages large proportion of the market share from all UAE 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. Whilst also supporting the Emirates’ suppliers with innovative revolving facilities to ensure a consistent supply of vehicles to the market.
Process excellence:
- With our digital offerings constantly improving, we have enabled Gen AI for extracting information from company documents like Trade License, Memorandum of Association, Proof of Address (Dewa, PP, EIDA), improving operational efficiency and a more seamless journey for customers
- The utilization of Advanced Analytics to monitor customer behavior and guide our relationship team to better serve their customer-base with more informed product recommendations and models to better serve underserved customers
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.
- Our Digital Payment Tracker launched, allowing SMEs to track their entire payment journey and benefit from real-time end-to-end visibility of their portfolio from a centralized dashboard, with an in-depth view of each payment and advanced search filters tailored to their needs
- 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 2024 we conducted more 8 engagement events with our customers called “Happiness Days” within our +5 dedicated business centers located across the UAE in addition to educational seminars on corporate tax and invites for various entertainment events.
“With a 60% increase in SME lending and a relentless focus on digital innovation, we are shaping the future of SME banking.”
Briefly highlight the top three projects or achievements your bank has delivered for SME customers in the past 18 months.
ENBD Business Banking VIP Privilege Program – Rewarding our Top Customers
- The launch of our ENBD Business Banking VIP Privilege Program, supported by a MENA-first Visa Infinite Business Debit Card. Providing a market-leading premium business service to our top end base , the scope of the program includes customers who combined, contribute a large share of business.
- This bespoke program delivers premium business, service, and lifestyle benefits to the identified customers, and is aimed at retention and growth of this important top-end base by providing them with a superior proposition to strengthen their banking relationship with us.
Digital 360 - Creating digital offerings across the customer journey
- Emirates NBD Business Banking has strengthened its digital proposition to provide its customers with unmatched convenience and an unforgettably smooth banking experience.
- Digital Compliance Enhancements across our Transaction Review Engine with enhanced due diligence and smart validation and an assisted Digital KYC Outreach portal automating outreach for our high-risk pool
- Reducing Frictions in Digital Account Opening during 2024, Emirates NBD Business Banking opened c.80% of new business accounts for SMEs and start-ups digitally utilizing innovative technology including Gen AI to reduce demands on customers for data entry
- Integrations with Government Entities and Trade License Authorities with access to the Department of Economy and Tourism Unified License via API, allowing for direct access license and party information seamlessly with customer entry of their DUL number
Driving Government Initiatives – Supporting UAE’s business go global
- As a testament of our everlasting support to SME businesses and Startups and our responsibility towards development of UAE economy we have run the Dubai International Growth Initiative, to accelerate the global expansion of Dubai-founded SMEs, in conjunction with the Dubai Government
The Dubai International Growth Initiative is the first of its kind, offering financing solutions based on the Emirates’ Interbank Offered Rate (EIBOR), with no additional margin to accelerate the global expansion of Dubai-founded SMEs. - Emirates NBD is also the primary banking partner for the Ministry of Economy to the FUTURE100 initiative
The FUTURE100 initiative aims to recognize and support the top 100 emerging companies contributing to enhancing the sustainable competitiveness of future economic sectors. Key sectors included address Space, BioTech, Fintech, EduTech, Advanced Manufacturing, Agritech and HealthTec
Find out more:
Visit Emirates NBD website.
