A UAE bank or insurer may only call you about a product between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM, no more than once a day and twice a week, and it may not call you again about something you already declined or did not answer. Those limits come from the Central Bank’s Telemarketing Regulation, Circular 3/2026, which took effect on 31 March 2026 and gave institutions 90 days to comply.

The regulation is new, unusually specific, and almost entirely unknown to the people it protects. It replaces the Central Bank’s 2011 notice on marketing bank loans, and it was issued to meet the requirements of Cabinet Resolution 56 of 2024 on the Telemarketing Regulations, the federal framework that also created the national Do Not Call Registry.

This guide sets out the operative rules the Telemarketing Regulation imposes on every bank, insurer, finance company and their outsourced call centers, what a compliant call has to sound like, the four things a telemarketer must tell you before selling anything, how to withdraw consent, and where to complain when the calls continue anyway.

The Hard Limits on When and How Often They Can Call

Article 15 sets three numerical limits. Telemarketing calls must only be made between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM UAE time. Communications must not be made to the same customer more than once per day, and a maximum of twice per week.

The exception is narrow and one-directional. A follow-up communication is permitted only where you have explicitly expressed interest in a specific product or service and have requested the follow-up, which means a follow-up you did not ask for is not a follow-up under the regulation.

Article 15.2 adds a rule that is easy to use. If you tell a caller a preferred contact time, calls must be restricted to that window, provided it falls inside 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Saying “call me only between four and five” is therefore an instruction, not a preference.

Limit Rule Article
Calling hours 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM UAE time only 15.1
Frequency Once per day maximum, twice per week maximum 15.3
After you decline No further calls about that product, ever 14.2
After you do not answer No further calls about the same product 14.2
Ending the call Must stop immediately on request, verbal or written 14.1
Automated dialers Disconnect an unanswered call within 15 seconds or 4 rings 16.1.1
Silence after you answer You must reach a telemarketer within 2 seconds 16.1.2

The Rule That Ends Repeat Calls About the Same Product

Article 14.2 is the strongest single provision in the regulation. Telemarketing communications must not be directed to customers who have previously rejected the product or service during a prior communication, or who have not answered a telemarketing attempt regarding the same product.

The second half is the part with no equivalent elsewhere. Not answering counts. A missed call about a personal loan is, under the regulation, the end of that campaign for your number, not the first of a series.

Article 14.1 covers the live call: the communication must be terminated and ceased immediately upon your request, and the request may be made verbally or in writing. There is no requirement to give a reason and no script the caller is entitled to complete first.

What a Compliant Call Has to Sound Like

Article 13.1.1 lists five things the telemarketer must tell you at the beginning of the call, before anything is sold. Two of them are rights most people have never been told they have.

  • Who initiated the communication.
  • The name and nature of the licensed financial institution.
  • The purpose of the communication.
  • Your right to submit a complaint to the institution and, where applicable, to the Ombudsman Unit, if you are dissatisfied with receiving the call or anything related to it.
  • Your right to register in the Do Not Call Registry to suspend telemarketing on that number.

For calls specifically, Article 13.1.2 adds three more obligations that are essentially unheard of in practice. The caller must ask whether it is a convenient time and offer to call back if it is not, state how long the call is likely to take and let you end it once that duration is exceeded, and ask whether you want the sales part of the call to continue before starting it.

A call that opens by launching into a credit card pitch without any of that is not a hard-sell irritation. It is a documented breach of a binding regulation, and the institution has to log the complaint.

The Identification Rules That Make Complaints Possible

Article 6 requires the institution to use its complete and registered business name, clearly and not concealed, and to show the designation “Telemarketing” adjacent to that name in all telemarketing-related communications.

It goes further on the numbers themselves. Under Article 6.5, the landlines and mobile numbers used must be issued by a telecommunications company licensed in the UAE and registered under the name of the institution’s commercial license.

That single clause is why a sales call from an unregistered mobile number claiming to represent a major bank is worth treating with suspicion. The regulation does not permit it, and the pattern is a familiar one in the common UAE scams and how to report them.

Article 7.1 requires prior express consent before any telemarketing. Article 8.2.6 requires the institution to tell you that consent can be withdrawn at any time, without cost or adverse consequences, and Article 8.3 requires it to immediately cease contact and remove your name and all contact information from its telemarketing list once you withdraw.

Consent is also supposed to be granular rather than blanket. Under Article 7.2 it must record your preferred language, your chosen channels, your preferred contact methods including whether you accept AI-based agents or robocalls at all, and the types of products you actually want to hear about.

Two provisions protect you at the moment of giving it. Article 8.2.7 requires the institution to disclose that agreeing to receive telemarketing is not a condition of purchasing the product, and Article 8.2.4 requires the consent to be obtained voluntarily and without pressure.

If you consented verbally on a call, Article 8.1.3 requires explicit verbal consent with the audio recording retained, and Article 8.2.1 requires an immediate written follow-up confirming the terms. That written confirmation is the document to request when a bank claims you opted in.

The Do Not Call Registry

Article 9.2 states plainly that a licensed financial institution must not conduct telemarketing with a customer who has opted out or rejected telemarketing in any form, or whose phone number is listed on the Do Not Call Registry. Article 9.1 requires the institution to ensure its telemarketers have access to the registry at all times.

The registry is defined in Article 1.10 as the unified national registry supervised by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, so it is a TDRA service rather than a Central Bank one, and it covers telemarketing generally, not only financial services.

Article 9.3 gives you a practical route to the registration procedure that does not depend on finding it yourself. Every institution must publish, on its official platforms, an accessible telemarketing guide detailing the procedures both for submitting complaints and for registering in the Do Not Call Registry.

A limitation worth stating. The TDRA’s own service pages were unreachable from our network throughout the preparation of this guide, so we are not repeating the registration shortcodes that circulate in press coverage. Get the current registration route from your own operator or from the mandatory guide your bank is required to publish under Article 9.3, and expect it to differ between operators. Number-level services generally do, as our guides to UAE mobile plans and complaining about a telecom provider set out.

Robocalls and AI Agents

Article 16 regulates automated systems directly. Automated dialing equipment must disconnect an unanswered call within 15 seconds or after four rings, and where the call is answered the customer must be connected to a telemarketer within two seconds.

The two-second rule targets the “dead air” call, where an autodialer connects before an agent is free and the line sits silent. Under the regulation that is not a technical annoyance, it is non-compliance.

Consent also has to name the technology. Article 7.2 requires your consent to record your preferred methods of contact, including whether you accept natural agents, artificial intelligence-based agents or robocalls, which means an AI voice calling a customer who consented only to human contact is outside the consent that was given.

Every automated call still has to be logged like any other. Article 10.2.3 requires the log to identify either the telemarketer’s name or employee ID, or the automated or AI system’s name or unique identifier.

The Paper Trail That Works in Your Favor

Article 10 requires a comprehensive telemarketing log for every communication through any channel, recording the date and time, the call duration, who initiated it, your name, and the purpose. Article 10.4 requires all records to be retained for a minimum of five years.

Five years of mandatory records changes what a complaint can prove. You do not have to demonstrate that a bank called you eleven times last month; you have to ask it to produce the log, which it is obliged to keep and which the Central Bank can request at any time.

Article 10.5 also requires the institution to inform you that the call will be recorded to verify its content. That recording is evidence in both directions, including of what the salesperson actually promised.

The Conduct Rules That Cover Mis-Selling

Article 12.1 requires telemarketers to be honest and to avoid false claims that can mislead, to avoid deception, and not to use any methods that put unjustified pressure on customers to buy a product or apply for a service. Article 13.2 requires clear statements of features, risks, premium offerings, charges and full terms.

Read alongside the cooling-off rules, that is a workable combination. If a product was sold on a call, you generally still have five complete business days to withdraw from the contract, which is covered in our guide to the cooling-off period on UAE bank and insurance products.

Article 18.2 adds a data rule with teeth. The institution must not share, transfer, disclose or trade your personal data with a third-party service provider or any third party except with your explicit consent, which sits alongside the general obligations in the UAE Personal Data Protection Law.

Outsourced Call Centers Are Not a Loophole

The scope section states that the regulation applies where the telemarketing function is outsourced, and that any third-party service provider engaged must fully comply with all its requirements. Article 19.2 puts the compliance obligation on the institution, not the agency.

This matters because the standard deflection on a nuisance call is that the caller worked for an agency. Under the regulation the bank remains answerable, and it must maintain an updated list of telemarketers and authorized channels specifically to facilitate customer inquiries about unwanted communications.

The training requirement is equally concrete. Article 3.2.2 requires at least 15 hours of appropriate training before anyone is authorized to conduct telemarketing, including on the proper handling of customer privacy and data and on using the Do Not Call Registry.

How to Complain, and to Whom

Complain to the institution first and in writing. Article 17.2 requires it to log the complaint with your name and contact information, the respondent’s name and contact information, and any supporting documents, and Article 17.4 requires it to handle the complaint under the Consumer Protection Regulation.

Article 17.5 obliges the institution to tell you about the next step: you may raise the complaint with the Ombudsman Unit if it fails to resolve the matter within the prescribed period.

That period is the one to watch. Under Article 4.1.2 of the Establishment of an Ombudsman Unit Regulation, a complaint can be rejected where the complainant has not given the institution at least 30 complete business days to provide a final response in writing.

Make the complaint specific. Name the date and time of each call, state which article you say was breached, and ask the institution to produce the telemarketing log entries and the consent record it is relying on. Those are documents it is required to hold, which turns a subjective complaint into a factual one.

What This Regulation Does Not Cover

The Central Bank’s regulation reaches banks, insurers, finance companies and their outsourced providers. It does not reach real estate brokers, gyms, telecom retailers or the general run of cold callers, who fall under the federal framework in Cabinet Resolution 56 of 2024 and its penalties resolution, Cabinet Resolution 57 of 2024, overseen by the Ministry of Economy.

We could not retrieve the official English text of either Cabinet Resolution from a government channel while preparing this guide, so no rule in this article is quoted from them. Every operative rule stated here comes from the Central Bank regulation, which cites both resolutions as the framework it implements. Treat coverage of non-financial cold callers as governed by rules we have not read rather than as unregulated.

The regulation also stops short of setting a consumer-facing penalty. Article 20 leaves violations to supervisory action, administrative action or financial sanctions as the Central Bank sees fit, so a breach produces a regulatory consequence for the institution rather than compensation for you.

FAQ

What time can banks call you in the UAE?

Between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM UAE time only, under Article 15.1 of the Central Bank’s Telemarketing Regulation. If you tell the caller a preferred contact time, Article 15.2 restricts future calls to that window provided it sits inside those hours. A sales call outside 9 to 6 from a bank, insurer or finance company is a breach regardless of what you agreed to earlier.

How many times can a UAE bank call me about the same product?

Once a day and twice a week at most, under Article 15.3. More importantly, Article 14.2 stops further calls entirely once you have rejected the product in a prior communication, or once you have simply not answered a call about that same product. A genuine follow-up is permitted only where you explicitly expressed interest and asked for one.

How do I stop marketing calls in the UAE?

Two routes work together. Withdraw consent directly with the institution, which under Article 8.3 must immediately stop contacting you and remove your name and all contact details from its telemarketing list, at no cost. Separately, register your number on the national Do Not Call Registry supervised by the TDRA; Article 9.3 requires every bank and insurer to publish an accessible guide on its own platforms explaining how to register.

What must a telemarketer tell me at the start of a call?

Five things, under Article 13.1.1: who initiated the call, the name and nature of the institution, the purpose of the call, your right to complain to the institution and to the Ombudsman Unit, and your right to register in the Do Not Call Registry. For calls they must also ask if it is a convenient time, say how long the call will take, and ask whether you want the sales part to continue before starting it.

Is it legal for a bank to use a robocall or an AI voice in the UAE?

Only within limits. Article 7.2 requires your consent to record whether you accept natural agents, AI-based agents or robocalls, so an AI voice calling someone who consented only to human contact falls outside the consent given. Article 16 also requires automated dialers to disconnect an unanswered call within 15 seconds or four rings, and to connect you to a telemarketer within two seconds of you answering.

Can I be refused a product for declining marketing calls?

No. Article 8.2.7 requires the institution to disclose that agreeing to receive telemarketing is not a condition of purchasing the product or service, and Article 8.2.6 requires it to tell you that consent can be withdrawn at any time without cost or adverse consequences. If a salesperson suggests otherwise, that is itself a matter for a complaint under the conduct rules in Article 12.

The caller was from an outsourced agency, not the bank. Does that change anything?

No. The regulation applies where the telemarketing function is outsourced, and any third-party service provider engaged must fully comply with all of it. Article 19.2 places the compliance obligation on the licensed institution, and Article 6.2 requires the institution to maintain an updated list of telemarketers and authorized channels specifically so customers can ask about unwanted communications.

How far back can I complain about nuisance calls?

The institution must retain all telemarketing records for a minimum of five years under Article 10.4, so the log exists well beyond the point most people complain. To the Ombudsman Unit, Article 4.4.1 of the Ombudsman Unit Regulation sets the window at whichever expires last of three years from the conduct or two years from the date you became aware of it.

When did the UAE telemarketing rules for banks come into force?

The Central Bank’s Telemarketing Regulation, Circular 3/2026, took effect on 31 March 2026, and Article 24.2 gave licensed financial institutions 90 days from that date to put the necessary measures and arrangements in place. It repeals and replaces Central Bank Notice 1102/2011 on marketing bank loans and other services offered to individual customers.

Does this regulation cover calls from estate agents and gyms?

No. The Central Bank’s regulation binds banks, insurers, finance companies and their outsourced providers only. Cold calls from other sectors fall under the federal framework created by Cabinet Resolution 56 of 2024 and the penalties in Cabinet Resolution 57 of 2024, administered by the Ministry of Economy, with the Do Not Call Registry supervised by the TDRA applying across sectors.

Official Sources

This article references the following instruments. Every operative rule stated above is taken from the Central Bank Rulebook text:

Information is current as of August 2026. Regulations are subject to change. Verify requirements with official authorities before proceeding.

This guide is for informational purposes only. UAE regulations and fees are subject to change. Always verify current requirements with the relevant official authority before proceeding with any application or transaction.