Banks in Dubai and the UAE

There are both foreign and local banks in Dubai and the UAE ready to look after your money, or lend you someone else's money. All dirhams lead back to the UAE Central Bank which governs and licences financial institutions in the UAE. They have a handy out of date (March 2003) list of banks operating in the UAE on their website. Retail customers will usually head to one of the commercial banks or Islamic banks. There are two other types of bank categories - merchant or investment banks, and industrial banks.

Check with your company if they have any special arrangements with a particular bank in Dubai. Sometimes you may get preferential rates on money transfers, or lower minimum balance requirements. You may also see your salary a day or two earlier if you're at the same bank as the one your company uses.

All (or nearly all) banks in Dubai and the UAE will have a minimum balance requirement for a current account ranging from 1000 to 5000 dhs. There's a monthly fee of 50-100 dhs if you go below that limit during the month - you only have to do that once to get hit with the fee. A savings account with a Dubai bank usually has a much lower, or no minimum balance requirement.

Most people will eventually collect a story or two about poor customer service. What seems to happen is that you open an account at a bank (based on where your company banks, location, or what someone else suggests). Eventually you'll get annoyed with something they've done, close your account and repeat the process at another bank. Usually this only happens once every couple of years or so, so it's unlikely you'll run out of banks for this procedure.

Best Banks in Dubai and the UAE
Everyone has different opinions about whether a bank is any good or not, and any comments here should be regarded as subjective opinions only, but there is an organisation called Ethos Consultancy that surveys UAE banks. Results for their 4th annual survey were released in November 2008 (based on 1500 visits to 29 banks by Ethos researchers) and RAK Bank took the award as the best overall bank (for the 3rd year in a row). Both RAK Bank and First Gulf Bank scored highly on many of the individual survey criteria used by Ethos. But who surveys the consultants? Best and worst banks in some categories according to Ethos were:

Best Bank Overall: RAK Bank (or National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah), followed by First Gulf Bank. Worst bank overall was United Bank Limited.
Best Islamic Bank: Emirates Islamic Bank
Best International Bank: Lloyds TSB Bank
Best Call Centre Performance: Dubai Islamic Bank followed by First Gulf Bank and RAK Bank. Worst were Al Masraf Bank, Bank of Sharjah and Doha Bank
Best websites and online services: First Gulf Bank and RAK Bank, followed Noor Islamic Bank. Worst were Al Masraf Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank and Commercial Bank International.
Best New Bank: Al Hilal Bank
Best for face-to-face customer interaction: RAKBank, National Bank of Dubai (NBD) and Commercial Bank. Worst were Bank of Sharjah and National Bank of Umm Al Quwain.
Customer service improved noticeably at RAKbank, First Gulf Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank, Mashreq Bank, Commercial Bank of Dubai and Barclays Bank.
Worst for customer service were HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank. Notably declining levels of customer service at National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), Union National Bank (UNB) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (previously ABN Amro).
Overall UAE bank rankings (out of 29 banks surveyed by Ethos Consultancy):

National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah (RAKBank)
First Gulf Bank
Emirates Islamic Bank
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
Dubai Islamic Bank
National Bank of Dubai
Mashreq Bank
Lloyds TSB Bank
Commercial Bank of Dubai
Al Hilal Bank
Noor Islamic Bank
Barclays
Commercial Bank International
Citibank
Emirates Bank International / meBank
National Bank of Abu Dhabi
Standard Chartered Bank
HSBC Bank
National Bank of Sharjah
Union National Bank
Dubai Bank
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (formerly ABN Amro)
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
Al Masraf
Doha Bank
National Bank of Umm Al Quwain
SAMBA
Bank of Sharjah
United Bank Limited