Emirates Islamic Launches Campaign To Provide Relief To SMEs Amid Surges In Freight Costs

Emirates Islamic, one of the leading Islamic financial institutions in the UAE, has introduced a preferential pricing campaign, aimed to assistexisting small and medium enterprise (SME) clients, by offering relief in terms of preferential charges on trade processing fees.

The bank will extend up to 10% discount on its trade processing feesto all SME clients impacted by higher charges.

Amid the challenges of Covid-19, SME traders aregrappling withincreased freight rates on certain routes where there is high demand, primarily due to factors like port disruptions. The price reliefaims to helpreduce the burden of these costsonSME traders, and improve theoverall health of their business.

As a part of its ongoing commitment towards SMEs, Emirates Islamic also recently introduced preferential pricing on issuance of trade guarantees for its SMEclients who are bidding or working on projects related to UAE government institutions and entities.In addition, as part of its effort to support the growing SME ecosystem, Emirates Islamic has a dedicated suite of online trade finance products.smartTRADEoffers clients a comprehensive range of new functionalities, allowing them to submit all trade requests online – such as letters of credit, guarantees, trade loan requests etc., thus enjoying reduced paperwork requirements and a shorter turnaround time. It also introduced its integrated digital platform businessONLINE in 2020, to deliver an enhancedbanking experience to businesses of all scales and sizes.

Wasim Saifi, Deputy CEO - Consumer Banking and Wealth Management, Emirates Islamic, said,“We, at Emirates Islamic, have always been committed to supporting SMEs and the overall growth of the SME sector in the UAE, the backbone of the nation’s economy.Through our preferential pricing campaign, we are happy to extend support to our SME clients andhelp with their business needs in an effective manner.”