Financial news from the UAE and around the world

Monday, March 31, 2008

UAE banks are avoiding global financial crisis



Financial crisis has been felt by almost all nations. It is now a new unbearable trend that give every individual a headache. UAE banks for instance are trying their best to escape from this phenomenon, so to save their developing financial system. The financial trend has alarmed the UAE nations. in a report released by the Kuwait-based Global Investment House, it highlighted only a margin of 23% exposure to personal loans for business and personal consumption, the rest is thought to have gone into real estate and local stock market.

Booming profits

The GIH study showed that total bank profits grew by 23% in 2007 and assets by 43% to Dhs1.2 trillion, the largest of any GCC state. Return on equity was up from 18.2% to 21%. And the capital to assets ratio a very healthy 14.2%, far above the level some big US banks are struggling to maintain.

Foreign assets comprised 21.5% of total assets at the end of September 2007 but this is down from 32.7% in 2001.

It is perhaps hardly surprising that with oil above $100-a-barrel and having been on a rising trend since 2001, liquidity has piled up at the local banks. There are 22 national banks and 27 foreign banks in the emirates and national banks have outperformed in terms of credit growth in the past three years.

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