Banking

The UAE accounted for 30% of the GCC’s total banking assets in 2014 following another year of steady growth, with Abu Dhabi playing a key role in this 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 with all five of the emirate’s biggest lenders posting profits in 2013. A new Financial Service Law, now in draft form, provides for the move to a twin-peaks model of regulation in the near future, with the Central Bank of the UAE likely to act as the prudential regulator. Leading institutions in the emirate are increasingly searching abroad for expansion opportunities with a focus on the rapidly growing West-East corridor – an area already home to 13 mega-cities, with a further 12 set to become mega-cities by 2025.

This chapter contains an interview with Alex Thursby, Group CEO, National Bank of Abu Dhabi.