Three years: the new lock-in period for Emiratis in the banking sector

Oh, to be an Emirati banker – while expat financial services professionals battle for the few job opportunities available to them currently, banks in the UAE are being told NOT to hire nationals unless they’ve worked at their previous employer for three years.

It’s an initiative by the Emirates Banks Association to stop the rampant job-hopping and resignations that have plagued the sector in recent years. The spiralling salaries and bidding wars for Emirati talent among local banks stretching to reach ever-growing localisation targets is well-documented.

Any UAE national now needs to stay with their current employer for three years before accepting a position at another bank. This aimed at ensuring they gain enough experience and expertise within the sector before jumping to another job.

As we’ve pointed to before, the real challenge is convincing UAE nationals to stay in the sector at all. Abul Aziz Al Ghurair told Arabic language newspaper Emarat Al Youm that some banks were guilty of “kidnapping of national employees” – namely, poaching them from other organisations, shifting them across various departments or over-promoting them.

“Emirati employees get promotion as fast as three times expatriate employees as they are promoted twice every five years...but the problem is that some Emiratis who are promoted so fast reach a position which is beyond their potential and this is pushing them to resign,” he said.

There are now around 12,800 UAE nationals in the banking sector – or 35% of the total number of people employed.