UAE BANKS FEDERATION Activities report for the Q1 of 2016

Dubai, UAE, June 22, 2016: 

1. UBF Board of Directors Meeting :
The Board held its first meeting for the year 2016 in March and discussed the following topics: elections of the new Board of Directors for the years 2016 - 2019, ratification of the financial statements for 2015 and budget for the year 2016 as well as Activities Report for 2015 and Action Plan for 2016.

2. UBF CEOs Advisory Council Meeting :
During its first meeting for the year 2016 in March, The CEOs advisory council discussed the following topics: Commercial / SMEs Skips, Iran Sanctions,
Decriminalization of Bounced Cheques, Write-off policies and IFRS9. 

3. Mobile Wallet Project:
UBF mWallet Steering Committee has finalized the project design phase. It is expected to launch the project in September 2016 and to the market in 2017 with the approval of seventeen member banks to participate in the project as shareholders. 

4. Significant Rescue Initiative for SMEs and medium-sized Corporate:
After approval of UBF CEOs Advisory Council during its meeting on 08.03.2016, the initiative to support Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized corporate experiencing repayment difficulties, was formally launched during a press conference headed by UBF Chairman and Heads of UBF SMEs and Wholesale committees on 28/3/2016 in Dubai.
The initiative calls for a “Modus Operandi” which includes a mechanism to help indebted companies through negotiation and explore the possibility of rescheduling of its debt and to sustain indebted companies which meet specific qualifying criteria. 

5. UBF Risk Management Committee :
UBF has organized a seminar presented by Professor Edward Altman, the Max L. Heine Professor of Financeat New York University's Stern School of Business. The seminar, coordinated by the UBF Risk Management Committee, was hosted by Commercial Bank of Dubai and attracted over 80 senior executives from member banks. Professor Altman led a discussion on “Evolution of Distress Prediction Models for Assessing the Probability of Default of Firms”, and featured his development of the ground breaking “Altman Z-Score Models” for credit risk management and bankruptcy prediction, on which he has worked over the past 5 decades. He also outlined his current assessment of credit market conditions and the outlook for the credit cycle in the future.
Professor Altman teaches 'Bankruptcy and Reorganization' and 'Credit Risk Management” in the Risk Management Open Enrolment Program for Stern Executive Education, as well as in the TRIUM Global Executive MBA Program. He is also the Director of Research in Credit and Debt Markets at NYU Salomon Centre for the Study of Financial Institutions. 

6. Draft Risk Management Regulations:
UBF DG and Heads of UBF Risk Management, Wholesale / corporate, Financial Markets, operations, Islamic and Legal committees had a consultative meeting with the concerned committee in Central Bank to discuss Central Bank draft risk management regulations on : interest rates, markets, operations, country risk and risk management.

7. Middle East Banking Forum 2016(MEBF):
UBF has selected “Financial Times - The Bankers” to organize” the fourth banking forum of UAE Banks Federation for the year 2016 at ST REGIS CORNICHE HOTEL in Abu Dhabi on Monday, 14th November 2016 under the title of “Transforming the Customer Experience”. 

8. Meeting with Heads of PR & Communications :
Upon invitation of UBF, Heads of PR & Communications in major banks gathered and discussed the following issues: Communication Guidelines, Middle East
Banking Forum for 2016, Image & Reputation of the banking sector and the action plan for 2016 as well as code of conduct. 

9.Al Etihad Credit Burea (AECB) :
UBF Working Group continued its regular meetings with the concerned team in AECB to discuss Commercial Credit Reports as well as Scoring.
On the other hand, UBF group has discussed with AECB UBF initiative to establish a “National Corporate Data Pooling”. 

10. UBF Information Security Committee :
UBF Information Security committee was formed of fifteen member banks with the Mandate to allow UAE banks to collaborate, provide appropriate and consistence response to existing and future risk related to Information / Cyber Security threat and incident. The committee had its first meeting where following priorities were discussed: Implementing a sharing culture across UAE Banks, Enhancing level of security awareness and controls, Provide consistent
engagement and approach with Regulator / UAE stakeholders, Increase visibility on current risk and threat landscape, Establish relationship with UAE stakeholders. 

11. New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi Branch:
UBF Director General and UBF Research and Studies Manager had a meeting with the Director, Executive Education of NYU and discussed potential mutual cooperation.

12. New Companies Law:
UBF Legal Committee has evaluated the New Companies Law and proposed its recommendations on the article and discussed same with the concerned
committee in Central Bank. 

13. Iran Sanctions:
UBF DG and Head of Compliance Committee had a meeting with concerned committee in Central Bank and discussed Iran Sanctions.

14. De-Risking : US - GCC correspondent Banking Private Public Dialogue:
Upon Central Bank request, an ad hock committee was formed from Heads of Compliance of leading member banks, to represent UAE banking sector on the U.S. - GCC Dialogue committee.

15. UBF Committees:

• Legal Committee :

Topics discussed:
- Digital payments regulatory framework
- Decriminalization of Bounced Cheques
- New commercial companies law
- Classification of Banks’ experts
- Small claims tribunal
- Outsourcing and off shoring.
- Data Protection
- Credit Information law
- Close-out Netting 

• Consumer Banking Committee :

Topics discussed:
- Financial Literacy
- SMEs Skips
- Decriminalization of Bounced Cheques 

• Wholesale Banking Committee:

 Topics discussed:
- Iran Sanctions
- Commercial / SMEs skips
- Banker’s reference
- Invoice Discounting
- Liquidity in the market 

• Audit Committee:

 Topics discussed:
-Working with IIA
-Case studies & experience sharing
- Market Conditions & Risk in UAE 

• Risk Management committee:

 Topic Discussed:
- Write-off policy
- IFRS9
- Basel III
- Draft Regulations on Risk Management
- Image Cheque Clearing System (ICCS)
- General Provisions
- Standardization of Industry Classification
- Al Etihad Credit Bureau
- DBR Computation 

• Financial Markets Committee:

 Topics Discussed:
- EIBOR
- Liquidity Regulation 

• HR Committee :

Topics discussed :
- Reward & Benefits practice sharing
- Emiratization
- Cost Efficiencies
- Shared Services
- Innovation Drive 

• Compliance Committee :

Topic discussed:
- Iran Sanctions
- Priorities for 2016 

• Marketing Committee:

 Topics Discussed:
- Financial Literacy
- Communication Guildelines
- UBF Trust Index

• SMEs Committee:

 Topics Discussed:
- 2016 priorities
- Trade License
- Central Information Unit
- SMEs Skips
- Cooperation with Khalifa Fund

• IT Committee:

Topic discussed: 
- Outsourcing Offshore
- Hosting, Cloud, Data Sovereignty and Data Access
- Mobile Wallet
- Information Security
- Block Chain 

• Fraud Prevention Committee :

Topic discussed:
- Priorities for 2016
- Information Sharing
- The Risk Associated with Double Swiping
- Potential use of cheques to authenticate paper TT Transactions.

• Digital Banking Committee:

Topic discussed:
- Priorities for 2016
- Counterfeit Currency