“As an ethical Islamic community bank, ruya places the highest priority on Environment Social Governance (ESG) principles in all its operations, aligning with its core values of transparency, fairness, and social responsibility. Our ESG policy is in line with the Sustainable Islamic Finance guidelines issued by the Central Bank of the UAE. Sustainability is at the heart of all our products and decision-making processes,” states Christoph Koster, CEO of ruya.
One of ruya’s most recent green initiatives is ‘NatureProtect’, a distinctive way to save the environment while saving money. “For every AED 1,000 a customer deposits into their ruya account, we preserve one square foot of primary forest area for a decade. There is no cap on the forest area that can be conserved, and customers can track their forest conservation progress in real-time through our app, which displays both their financial and forest conservation balances,” elaborates Koster.
Transactions with ruya are seamlessly conducted via their mobile banking app. Additionally, ruya’s community centers are paperless and promote energy efficiency. They also provide financial literacy programs to empower customers with financial knowledge and fraud awareness. Anyone can open an account with ruya, as there are no minimum balance requirements or hidden fees. All that is needed to open an account is a UAE PASS or an Emirates ID. Furthermore, ruya supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by facilitating ease of doing business and is committed to digital innovation to continuously expand its product and service offerings.
