The UAE Banks Federation will work to finalise the mobile wallet project and improving the regulatory and legal framework for the direct debit system.

Each of the federation's committees have submitted a plan for the coming year comprising projects to improve the performance of the banking sector and to manage challenges anticipated in the year ahead.

The chairman of the UAE Banks Federation, AbdulAziz Al Ghurair, hosted a meeting to review and appraise the work and milestones achieved by the 15 specialised committees of the federation over the year, as well as to discuss their business plan for 2016, focusing on innovation. The meeting, which held in Dubai, was and attended by the chairmen of the committees, who represent a cross-section of the organisation's member banks.

Aside from the mobile wallet and direct debit system, the committees' work programme for 2016 includes reducing the impact of the "de-risking" policies imposed by US banks on UAE-based counterparts, and encouraging the implementation of more financial literacy programmes by member banks.

The scheduled projects also include stimulating a more standardised approach by banks to the implementation of the Al Etihad Credit Bureau's guidelines, identifying more effective solutions to avoid credit default by small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Items highlighted included the first Trust Index Survey carried out by the federation in July and August, which showed the UAE to be among the leading countries of the world in terms of customer trust in their banks.

During 2015, the Islamic Banking Committee initiated a proposal for a Shariah-compliant governance unit to be established at the Central Bank of the UAE to support the further development of Islamic banking audits supervision in the country. An outline for legislation to permit close-out netting between banks and to leverage the UAE as a netting jurisdiction was also put forward by the federation.

Al Ghurair said: "This meeting highlighted the sheer scale of work that the federation is now committed to, reflected by the new committees created this year."

"The role the federation plays, in cooperation with the Central Bank of the UAE, is becoming more vital to provide a strategic plan for the banking industry and to be ready for challenges that may occur," he added.