{"id":113871,"date":"2026-04-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/04\/08\/gcc-banks-could-see-a-25-surge-in-losses-in-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:00:00","slug":"gcc-banks-could-see-a-25-surge-in-losses-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/04\/08\/gcc-banks-could-see-a-25-surge-in-losses-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"GCC banks could see a 25% surge in losses in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1.15;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left\"> <strong>GCC banks are bracing for a possible 25% y-o-y rise in loan loss provisions in the next <\/strong><strong>two years<\/strong> to hit USD 11.6 bn in 2027 as regional conflict widens their risk exposure to defaults, according to a report from S&P\u2019s Visible Alpha seen by EnterpriseAM.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1.15;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left\"><strong>The forecast is primarily driven by UAE banks\u2019 exposure to the real estate debt<\/strong>, with many real estate issuances falling into distress earlier in March before some corrected over widening yield spreads, as we previously reported. The report also pointed to risks of declining rents, which could affect loan repayments. <\/p>\n<p style=\"padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1.15;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left\"><strong>Who\u2019s most exposed?<\/strong> In the UAE it\u2019s Dubai Islamic Bank and the First Abu Dhabi Bank that have the biggest risk exposure to real estate, with almost a quarter of each of their portfolios going to developers, the report says. Midsized developers and contractors \u201care more vulnerable to payment delays and rising funding and construction costs,\u201d fueling a potential rise in nonperforming loans.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1.15;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left\"><strong>Background: <\/strong>GCC banks are expected to slash dividends by up to 50% this year to protect <\/p>\n<p style=\"padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1.15;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left\">their liquidity positions as they navigate the fallout of the regional conflict. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dubai Islamic Bank and the First Abu Dhabi Bank reportedly have the biggest exposure to real estate risk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2635],"tags":[2633,2538,2631,2634,2562],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-113871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-scorecard","tag-banking","tag-enterpriseam","tag-gcc","tag-the-scorecard","tag-uae","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"66676e09-1269-4479-9b8a-db39bccdf993","order":"7","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/1462.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Brace for impact","related_issue":[113860],"teaser":"Dubai Islamic Bank and the First Abu Dhabi Bank reportedly have the biggest exposure to real estate risk"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - 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