Provision of banking services for those with disabilities, CBO issues instructions

Muscat: The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has issued a set of special directives targeted at ‘providing convenient banking services to persons with disabilities,’ the bank said in a statement on Sunday.

“The directives have been issued in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD), concerned non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the Oman Banks Association,” the CBO said in its statement.

Oman’s central bank said that this initiative was undertaken due to the importance of enabling persons with disabilities to benefit from banking services, and given the bank’s continuous endeavour to achieve ‘financial inclusion’ and to deliver banking services to all segments of society equally without any discrimination.

The new set of instructions mandates all local banks to upgrade their banking infrastructure across their network of branches so that customised banking services can be provided to people with disabilities with much ease and in a friendly and amicable manner. The directives also require the banks to open and operate at least one dedicated branch for the people with disabilities in each of the governorates of the Sultanate of Oman.

Emphasising the need to take advantage of the modern and secure financial technologies, the new directives call upon the banks to develop the latest and customised banking applications for this segment of people, enabling them to avail banking and associated services with much ease and convenience.

The provision of appropriate and targeted training opportunities to bank employees has also been emphasised as part of the new directives so that the trained bank staff can effectively deliver banking services to persons with disabilities.