Arab News, Sun, May 05, 2024 | Shawwal 26, 1445
UAE banks’ aggregate capital, reserves exceed $136bn
Emirates:
UAE-based banks’ aggregate capital and reserves reached 501.5 billion dirhams
($136 billion) at the end of February, up 14.4 percent year-on-year, according
to new data.
The latest statistics from the Central Bank of the
UAE showed that on a monthly basis, the total capital and reserves grew 0.95
percent, reflecting an increase of approximately 4.7 billion dirhams, according
to the Emirates News Agency, also known as WAM.
This rise in figures falls in line with the
central bank’s goal of enhancing monetary and financial stability in the
country.
Moreover, the data indicated that national banks
accounted for around 86.5 percent of the aggregate capital and reserves of banks
operating in the UAE. At the end of February, they recorded a total of 433.7
billion dirhams, an annual rise of 14.6 percent.
On the other hand, the share of foreign banks
settled at 13.5 percent, hitting 67.8 billion dirhams at the end of the same
month, reflecting a 13.2 percent surge compared to the same period a year
earlier.
Furthermore, at the end of February, the total
capital and reserves of banks operating in Dubai alone stood at 246.4 billion
dirhams, logging a year-on-year growth of 15.1 percent.
Additionally, banks operating in Abu Dhabi
recorded around 217 billion dirhams, up 13 percent from the corresponding period
in 2023.
Meanwhile, the cumulative capital and reserves of
banks operating in other emirates combined reached an estimated 38.1 billion,
reflecting a 15.5 percent climb in comparison to the same period a year prior.
In March, a top executive at Roland Berger said
that UAE bank branches were witnessing the highest revenues in the region,
amounting to $18.6 million per branch.
This was driven by the nation’s digital
transformation, which enabled financial institutions in the Gulf Cooperation
Council to reduce the number of banking branches by 328 within three years,
Saumitra Sehgal, the global consulting firm’s head of financial services in the
Middle East, told WAM, at the time.
Sehgal also pointed out at the time that the
number of bank branches across GCC nations decreased from 4,067 at the end of
2019 to 3,739 by December 2022.
He further noted that banks in the UAE saw the
highest number of outlets merge and reduce with the support of digital
transformation between 2019 and 2022.