Financial advisers in the UAE have the fifth worst reputation in the country for the third year running, research has found.
Consultancy firm Insight Discovery surveyed 1,222 UAE residents and found 10% consider them to have a poor reputation, up from 9% in 2020.
Some 27% of respondents overall consider recruitment companies to have the worst reputation in the UAE, while credit card companies came second (20%).
They were followed by telemarketers (18%), real estate agents (13%), and advisers from banks (7%) in sixth place.
However, within the breakdown of the demographics, western expats voted financial advisers as the least trusted group.
Stop cold calling
Nigel Sillitoe, chief executive of Insight Discovery, said: “Tough market conditions are often the best time for any wealth or financial adviser to differentiate themselves and prove their value to clients.
“Now they are more closely regulated in the UAE, consumers should expect to be able to place more trust in the profession as a whole.
“However, for their image amongst western expats to improve, I sense cold calling needs to stop, an annoying practice still used by some firms.
“A ban is only likely to become reality if the local regulators introduced fines for the small number of regulated firms who continue to cold call. They also need to get tougher with unscrupulous unregulated firms, who are definitely tarnishing the reputation of firms who take regulation and qualifications seriously.”
