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Abu Dhabi / WAM
The total assets of UAE-based commercial banks increased to circa AED2.457 trillion by the end September, AED173 billion ($47.1 billion) of which were recorded over the past nine months only, accounting for 81.3 percent of the UAE banks’ total assets, statistics by the Central Bank of the UAE showed on Tuesday. Up to 19.7 percent of these assets are owned by Shariah-compliant banks.
The asset growth is driven a significant rise in deposits from AED1.354 trillion in December 2018 to AED1.406.4 trillion in September 2019.
Retail loans provided by commercial banks amounted to around AED1.2 trillion, making up 78.6% of total banks’ credit, AED367.3 bn of which, equivalent to 22.4%, were
provided by Islamic banks.
In the meantime, the Islamic banks’ assets are down to AED565.7 bn by the end of September from AED582.6 bn by the end of December 2018.
Accordingly, the total assets of Islamic and commercial banks combined picked up to around AED3.022 trillion by the end of September.
As per the banking regulator’s latest figures, there are 59 banks operating in the UAE, 51 of which are commercial and eight Shariah-compliant.