{"id":107244,"date":"2025-09-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/uae\/uae-banks-top-gcc-growth-in-2q\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T00:00:00","slug":"uae-banks-top-gcc-growth-in-2q","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/uae\/2025\/09\/08\/uae-banks-top-gcc-growth-in-2q\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE banks top GCC growth in 2Q"},"content":{"rendered":"

UAE<\/strong> banks booked another strong quarter in 2Q 2025, leading the GCC in<\/strong> loan <\/strong>and <\/strong>revenue growth<\/strong>, Kamco Invest said in its latest banking sector quarterly report (pdf)<\/a>. Net income rose 3.2% q-o-q (USD 191.8 mn), the second biggest absolute gain in the bloc.<\/p>\n

Loans and revenues: <\/strong>Gross loans expanded 4.6% q-o-q \u2014 the fastest pace in the GCC \u2014 adding USD 29.8 bn to reach USD 672.8 bn. Revenues also rose 5.3% q-o-q to a regional high of USD 13.3 bn, driven by a 10.1% jump in non-interest income to USD 5.7 bn and a 1.8% uptick in net interest income to USD 7.6 bn.<\/p>\n

Customer deposits also topped the region<\/strong>, climbing 4.1% q-o-q to USD 941 bn. That left the UAE\u2019s loan-to-deposit ratio at 67.9%, up slightly from the previous quarter but still the lowest among Gulf peers, signaling ample liquidity. <\/p>\n

Margins remained the strongest in the GCC: <\/strong>Net interest margins came in at 3.26%, down from 3.34% in 1Q but well ahead of other markets \u2014 thanks to low-cost CASA deposits and a heavy weighting toward retail lending. Operating expenses fell 6.1% q-o-q to USD 4.6 bn, helping push the cost-to-income ratio down to 38% from 38.7% in the prior quarter. <\/p>\n

However, impairments more than doubled to USD 500 mn<\/strong>, lifting the cost of risk to 0.5%, in line with the GCC average. Even so, UAE banks delivered the highest return on equity in the bloc at 16.4%. The figure edged lower for the fourth straight quarter but remained comfortably above regional peers.<\/p>\n

THE REGIONAL PICTURE- <\/p>\n

GCC banks collectively posted record net income of USD 16.2 bn in 2Q 2025<\/strong>, up 3.7% q-o-q and 9.2% y-o-y. Sector-wide revenues rose 3.6% q-o-q to USD 35.6 bn, with non-interest income up 7.5% and net interest income also edging higher.<\/p>\n

At the aggregate level, GCC gross loans rose 3.3% q-o-q to a record USD 2.3 tn<\/strong>, while deposits climbed 3.5% to USD 2.7 tn. Return on equity held steady at 13.6%, as the sector\u2019s cost-to-income ratio dipped below 40% on a three-quarter low in operating expenses.<\/p>\n

Kuwait led in net income growth<\/strong>, climbing USD 204.6, or 15.6%, while Saudi Arabia saw growth of USD 152.3 mn, up 2.6%. KSA and Kuwait also followed behind the UAE in gross loan growth, up 2.5% q-o-q in Saudi Arabia to reach USD 20.3 bn and up 4.2% in Kuwait to USD 10.8 bn.<\/p>\n

ICYMI- <\/strong>In 1Q 2025<\/a>, UAE banks posted the biggest absolute net income growth in the region, up 11.8% q-o-q, while deposits jumped 6.7% to USD 903.8 bn. GCC-wide net income hit a record USD 15.6 bn, with Saudi banks also recording strong double-digit annual net income growth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Net income rose 3.2% q-o-q, the second biggest absolute gain in the region<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","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":[1618],"tags":[159,19,7,1393],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-107244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-banking","tag-economy","tag-enterpriseam-uae","tag-finance","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"de01e4ee-5acc-4039-b0b9-91358e1743ec","order":"4","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2024\/11\/1166.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"UAE banks lead GCC loan and revenue growth in 2Q 2025","related_issue":[107237],"teaser":"Net income rose 3.2% q-o-q, the second biggest absolute gain in the region","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/9\/.f4f192eb-9acf-4001-96b3-be3a29703f16.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nUAE banks top GCC growth in 2Q - 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