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29 March 2024

Stay fit, earn more: Dubai bank offers fitter clients better interest rate

Published
By Joseph George

Health indeed is wealth and a Dubai based bank appears to have taken the slogan quite literally. Commercial Bank of Dubai in an effort to promote healthy lifestyles among its customers has been giving away more cash or rather increase the interest rates to its clients provided they exercise regularly.

The feature was unveiled in August last year when the bank launched its CBD Active Saver mobile application which has been downloaded by about  and today has about 6000 downloads on both iTunes and Android Playstore.

The app invites customers to link their CBD saving account with their Fitbit or Jawbone or Apple watch or Android wear devices and can even read the readings from Android S Health application.

Customers can then transfer money from their CBD account to a special high-interest savings account based on how active they are.

The amount that can be transferred is also linked to the targets. Starting from a minimum of Dh10 a user can transfer upto Dh3000 every day. Users can also transfer the amount between accounts using their Apple or Android Watch.

The more the customer walks and exercises, the higher the interest rate they can earn.

Higher interest rates and transaction limits are tied to the number of steps taken in a day and become more attractive as the goals become higher. Interest is then accrued according to each customer’s monthly average balance and paid at the end of every month.

Users (non CBD customers can trial the app for a month but will need a CBD account in order to avail the benefit) need to walk a minimum of 5000 steps to reach their first goal and start saving. The more they walk the more they can save and better interest rates. The bank says it can offer a maximum of 1.5 per cent to those who regularly exercise and manage to achieve the set goals.

The bank is also offering special insurance premium rates for to all Active Saver customers .

The initiative is part of the CBD’s Personal Financial Management Solution launched that was launched in 2014  and part of the CBD nEXT initiative.

The bank on Wednesday showcased its range of range of digital solutions that it has planned as part of the CBD nEXT transformation programme that aims for greater digital involvement.

in 2013, Dubai Municipality had launched a similar initiative where residents were being rewarded with gold coins for shedding weight. According to the Municipality the three month 'Your Weight in Gold', campaign saw at least 10,000 people participate and about 3000 of them took away a total of 17 kilograms of gold.