It has been a strong year for Abu Dhabi’s Islamic financial services (IFS) sector, which is successfully overcoming the systemic challenges that had arisen during the 2008-09 global economic crisis. Robust financial results from the emirate’s two sharia-compliant banks, a continuation of innovative sukuk (sharia-compliant bonds), issuance and the...
Articles & Analysis | Demand-driven growth is expected to continue from The Report: Abu Dhabi 2015
Articles & Analysis | The real estate market is expanding within a new framework for mortgage lending from The Report: Abu Dhabi 2015
Lending to the nation’s construction and real estate sector rose markedly in 2013, according to data from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBU). In December 2012 the total amount of outstanding credit to the sector stood at Dh129.2bn ($35.2bn) – comfortably within the range mandated in the wake of the global economic crisis and deterioration of real estate markets in Abu...
Articles & Analysis | Banks in the emirate and the UAE are posting strong figures even as regulators introduce new rules to preserve stability from The Report: Abu Dhabi 2015
Another year of steady asset growth has seen the UAE banking sector retain its position as the largest in the GCC and, as usual, the Abu Dhabi-based component has played an important part in the expansion. Having successfully emerged from the global economic turbulence of recent years, the sector is on a trajectory of loan-book growth and sustainable profits. It is now...
Articles & Analysis | The emirate’s banks map out a vast territory for expansion from West Africa to East Asia from The Report: Abu Dhabi 2015
The UAE is often said to be over-banked, with 23 local banks and 28 foreign institutions currently licensed to operate in the nation. To be sure, banking density in the UAE – at 11.9 branches per thousand people, according to data from the World Bank – is high compared to some markets in the region. Yet many of its neighbours have developed far more densely populated...
Interviews & Viewpoints | Alex Thursby, Group CEO, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD): Interview from The Report: Abu Dhabi 2015
To what extent will the government’s investment strategy help underpin the sector’s expansion by encouraging big-ticket corporate lending?
Chapter | Islamic Financial Services from The Report: Abu Dhabi 2015
Demand-driven growth is expected to continue in the Islamic financial services sector, with sharia-compliant assets making up some 21.4% of the UAE’s banking system in 2013, up from 17% in 2012, and crossing the $100bn mark for the first time. Abu Dhabi’s takaful operators are playing their part in the growth of the UAE industry, which has seen the nation become the second-largest provider of...