UAE nationals still make up just 35% of those employed in the banking sector

The funny thing about Emiratisation in the banking sector is that you only ever hear about individual firms’ proportion of nationals in their workforce when it exceeds the designated 40% quota.

Across the UAE, however, there’s still some work to go. The Emirates Banks Association has just held its annual general meeting and, among other things, confirmed that there are now nearly 12,800 UAE nationals employed in the banking sector, or 35% of total headcount.

This figure seems relatively positive, albeit below the stated 40% quotas of most banks in the UAE, but it’s unfortunate that the report doesn’t detail where the Emiratis work within the banking sector.

As we’ve mentioned previously, the majority of UAE nationals end up in retail banking, even if they are fast-tracked to branch manager level, and the wholesale space remains dominated by the expat workforce.

What’s more, we’re told that the application process for some of the international banks’ graduate schemes is often beyond the majority of Emiratis.

One graduate recruiter at bulge bracket bank told us: “We’d dearly love to attract UAE nationals, but very often we end up hiring higher calibre candidates from Lebanon. The application process involves multiple interviews, assessments and tests and the feedback we’ve received is simply that it’s too lengthy for most Emirati students who can easily gain a position in the public sector.”