DUBAI, April 15: The United Bank Limited (UBL) has entered into consumer banking in the UAE with two schemes offering attractive incentives, an area generally not ventured into by Pakistani banks. Its first scheme, Tez Raftaar remit and gain, is to promote remittances to Pakistan through the banking channel.

Shaukat Mir, general manager of UBL in the UAE, said on Sunday that the bank has introduced points system for the remitters under which every remittance of Rs7,000 offers 10 points which entitle the remitter to save Dhs10 from his next remittance through the bank.

"With the introduction of this scheme, we have matched the bank's exchange rate with that of the hundi rate without actually altering our rate," Mir said. He said that in the past, alterations by the banks in the rate used to start a chain reaction in the hundi rate.

The UBL is keeping its eight branches in the UAE open in the evening, seven days a week for remittance so that workers who are living in labour camps, away from the city, can also benefit from the scheme on their weekly holiday, Mir said.

The remittance service is completely free of charge and the amount sent to Pakistan is delivered confidentially at the receiver's doorstep, he said.

Personal loans: The bank's second scheme is the Personal Loan Assistance (Plan), a scheme against salary through a short and simple procedure with convenient repayment options.

The UBL is the first Pakistani bank in the UAE to introduce such a facility in a big way.

As an incentive, the bank is processing the loan without any fee and is charging reduced interest rates on the loan. It is also offering to take over the loan from other banks, Mir said.