Whistleblowing Procedure

This Whistleblowing Procedure provides employees, management, directors, creditors, depositors, service providers and others (‘Stakeholders’) with a secure, confidential way to report concerns about corruption, unlawful conduct, unethical or unprofessional behavior To ensure the Bank maintains a culture of integrity, transparency and trust it encourages its Stakeholders to Whistle blow when they have genuine concerns, which reduces the risk of financial and reputational loss.

Types of Concern to be reported

Stakeholders must report, through line management (for staff) or in accordance with this Whistleblowing Procedure (for third parties) regarding known or suspected matters relating to:

  1. Dishonesty
  2. Fraudulent activity
  3. Corrupt practices
  4. Illegal activity (including, but not limited to, theft, embezzlement, drug sale/use, violence or threatened violence and damage against property)
  5. Breach of law or regulation
  6. Unethical (either representing a breach of the entity’s code of conduct or generally)
  7. Other serious improper conduct
  8. An unsafe work-practice
  9. Any other conduct which may cause financial or non-financial loss to the entity or be otherwise detrimental to the interests of the entity
  10. Harassment
  11. Insider abuse
  12. The concealment, or deliberate failure to report, a known control breach or weakness
  13. Attempts to conceal any of these, etc.

How to Whistle blow

Individuals can raise concerns by whistleblowing in several different ways.

These include:

  1. Send an email to whistleblowing@zand.ae
  2. Face to face disclosure meeting with the designated Whistleblowing Officer

All Stakeholders have a responsibility to whistle blow if they suspect or believe any actual, planned or potential wrongdoing that breaches any law, regulation, Banks policies or controls has occurred, is occurring or may occur.

All disclosures will be recorded, reviewed and, where appropriate, independently investigated. An acknowledgement and where possible, feedback will be provided to the discloser raising the concern.

Every effort will be made to maintain the confidentiality of the discloser making a report (although where, for example, the report leads to legal proceedings, this cannot be guaranteed).

Whistleblowing reports and details of any associated work must only be passed to those who ‘need to know’, maintaining, where possible, the confidentiality of the discloser.

Unless a report has been made in bad faith, by reporting a concern known or should have known to be false, no discloser will be disadvantaged for Whistleblowing, even if there is no conclusive evidence to support the concern raised.

This procedure does not affect the right of a discloser to raise concerns in an appropriate manner directly with a regulator or external auditor as permitted by local law or regulation. Any reports of known or suspected misconduct received from non-Staff will be treated using the same principles.

Subscribe
Stay tuned for our news and latest updates.
© Zand Bank PJSC 2024. All rights reserved.
Zand Bank PJSC is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE,
Emaar Square, Building 6, Level 1, P.O. Box 62593, Dubai, UAE.