Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Private vaults fill the gap as banks abandon deposit boxes

By Joel Barrick, Shruthi Nair
  • Traditional banks are moving away from safety deposit box provision
  • Private firms such as Dubai’s Vintage Vaults offer an alternative
  • Customers include HNWIs, tourists and corporate clients

Private vaults in Dubai are emerging to take the place of the safety deposit boxes once provided by traditional banks.

Costs, concerns over legal liability and the rise of online banking have made providing safety deposit boxes less appealing for banking giants. Capital One, HSBC, Barclays and JPMorgan Chase have all withdrawn from the market.

Dubai is recognised as a safe country – Dubai Police figures show that in 2021 it recorded 1.6 robberies per 100,000 people, compared with 60.9 in the US in the same period, according to Statista.

Theft and burglary numbers are also low in the emirate.

Nonetheless, people still want to keep their valuables secure, whether they are wealthy residents or tourists who want to keep items safe while they visit.

Enter Vintage Vaults, based in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates. Co-founder Sherif El Haddad said some people use its private vaults service to store gold they have bought in Dubai until they fly back home.

Watch the video as AGBI takes an exclusive look inside the vaults in the heart of Dubai.

Latest articles

Investor Tim Draper told AGBI the US must 'swing back to freedom' to avoid losing innovation to countries such as the UAE

Tim Draper: UAE benefits from US crypto ‘overregulation’

Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper has criticised the US for its restrictive stance on cryptocurrency, claiming it is driving innovators towards more encouraging and friendlier markets such as the UAE. The Gulf state is actively developing regulatory frameworks to lure new forms of business, amid intense regional economic competition. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have set […]

A subsidiary of Banque Misr will open the first digital-only bank in Egypt this year

Egypt to open first digital bank later this year

Misr Digital Innovation will open Egypt’s first digital bank towards the end of the year, as it looks to appeal to the North African’s country’s younger and unbanked demographic. MTI, a subsidiary of Banque Misr, is the first bank to have received approval to establish a digital bank by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) […]

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries which will receive the investment from AIDA and US-based KKR

Abu Dhabi’s ADIA invests in Indian warehouses

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and the US-based private equity firm KKR have invested INR 12,000 crore ($1.5 billion) in India’s Reliance Retail Ventures’ warehousing assets.  Both companies have invested equal amounts in Reliance Logistics and Warehouse Holdings (RLWH), The Economic Times, an Indian financial daily, reported, citing informed sources.  RLWH was established in […]

Saudi Arabia’s industry and mineral resources minister Bandar Al-Khorayef. The country is struggling to meet an FDI target of $100bn a year by 2030

Saudi industry minister tempts investors with funding incentives

Saudi Arabia’s ministry of investments and mineral resources is prepared to finance up to 75 percent of industrial projects in the country, as the kingdom tries to boost its low foreign direct investment (FDI) numbers.  Bandar Al-Khorayef, the minister of industry and mineral resourcespointed to well-developed infrastructure across 36 industrial cities, prefabricated factories ready to […]