Banking
From The Report: Abu Dhabi 2015
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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.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Banks in the emirate and the UAE are posting strong figures even as regulators introduce new rules to preserve stability
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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 looking to expand its activities in both the domestic market and abroad. While the legacy of 2007-08 means that challenges remain…

Interview

Managing exposure: OBG talks to Alex Thursby, Group CEO, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD)
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Interview:Alex Thursby To what extent will the government’s investment strategy help underpin the sector’s expansion by encouraging big-ticket corporate lending? ALEX THURSBY: The capital spending programmes of all the emirates and the federal government were laid out going back some years and include substantial amounts of infrastructure and social spending. Many projects are being rolled out in phases through 2030, with a substantial knock-on effect to the private sector accruing over…

Analysis

The emirate’s banks map out a vast territory for expansion from West Africa to East Asia
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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 banking industries. Oman has a banking density of 19.7 per thousand people, while the hydrocarbons-driven economies of Qatar and…

Analysis

The real estate market is expanding within a new framework for mortgage lending
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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 Dhabi and Dubai. However, just one year later this figure had swelled to Dh180.9bn ($49.2bn) – the biggest rise since the jump…