UAE banking sector’s assets up 1,200 pct since 2000 – senior banker

The assets of the United Arab Emirates’ banking sector have surged to more than $900bn from $75bn since 2000, the head of a major Emirati banking association said, forecasting further massive revenue growth in the sector.

The total revenues of the UAE’s banks are likely to swell by 50 per cent by 2030, reaching more than $25bn, Dubai-based English-language daily Khaleej Times cited Abdulaziz Al Ghurair, chairman of the UAE Banks Federation, as telling a conference in Abu Dhabi in mid-November.

This means a faster rate than the pace of the country’s overall economic growth, Ghurair told the Abu Dhabi Finance Week, a conference whose delegates represented about 30 countries.

Ghurair, who is also chairman of Dubai’s Mashreq Bank, also spoke of the high-degree digitalisation of Emirati banking.

He said that “more than 95 per cent of all transactions of leading banks have become digital”, that “leading banks now provide 90 per cent of their services via smartphone”, and that the UAE’s banks have invested more than $1bn in digital infrastructure over the past five years.

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