Amira Khalil, Author at icnlive

UAE Banking

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report shows UAE bank assets up 17.1% in 2025

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report puts numbers behind something many people in the UAE already sense: that banks are lending more freely than they did a few years ago. UAE banking sector assets grew 17.1 percent in 2025 to AED5.3 trillion, worth roughly $1.44 trillion. Loans rose faster still, up 17.8 percent. Most of that credit stayed inside the country. Retail customers and private companies took on the bulk of it.

For anyone who has applied for a mortgage, a car loan, or working capital for a small shop, this is what a growing loan book feels like. Credit gets easier to reach. Approvals come through more often. Banks compete harder for your business.

Loan quality improved alongside the volume. The non-performing loan ratio fell to 3.3 percent in 2025, down from 4.7 percent a year earlier. In 2020, it stood at 8.2 percent. Lending more while getting repaid more reliably is an unusual pairing, and it points to households and firms in better financial shape.

Profits and the cushion behind them

Net profits climbed 11.7 percent to AED90.8 billion, about $24.7 billion, helped by higher operating income. The capital adequacy ratio finished the year at 17 percent, above the regulatory minimum. Deposits kept flowing in, so liquidity stayed comfortable.

Think of a capital ratio the way you would think of a household emergency fund. The bigger the buffer, the longer a bank can take losses without cutting off customers.

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report also covers what happens if conditions turn ugly. Supervisory stress tests run during 2025 modelled a severe economic shock. Under the adverse scenario, the average Common Equity Tier 1 ratio slipped from 14.1 percent to a low of 11.1 percent, staying above the regulatory floor for the whole test period.

What CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report says about payments

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report tracks how money moves as well as where it sits. The Aani instant payment platform carried around 183 percent more transactions in 2025 than in 2024, and enrolled users passed 11.7 million by the end of December. Aani lets you send up to AED50,000 at any hour of the day, with QR payments, payment requests and split bills built in.

The Jaywan card scheme runs alongside it as the national card network. Both sit inside the Financial Infrastructure Transformation Programme, the central bank’s plan for rebuilding the country’s payment rails. Work on cross-border payments continues under the same programme.

Beyond the big banks

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report describes steady conditions across Islamic banking and insurance too. A legal change sits underneath all of this. Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025 consolidated the rules covering banks and insurers, reinforced the central bank’s independence, and named the CBUAE as the country’s Resolution Authority, the body that steps in when a financial firm fails.

Khaled Mohamed Balama, Governor of the CBUAE, said the report “affirms the strength and resilience of the UAE financial system and its ability to continue supporting the national economy efficiently.” He said the central bank will keep tightening its supervisory and prudential frameworks and preparing the system for risks still ahead.

For savers and borrowers, the practical read is simple. Banks have room to lend, buffers to absorb trouble, and payment tools that clear money in seconds rather than days. What the next report shows will depend on whether credit growth near 18 percent holds without loan quality slipping back.

By Amira Khalil
3 min read

Sharjah

Sharjah and Maldives in an economic partnership push on fish and tourism

A meeting at the Sharjah Chamber’s headquarters has placed Sharjah and the Maldives in an economic partnership discussion that starts with something ordinary: the fish on your plate and the room you sleep in on holiday. Abdallah Sultan Al Owais, Chairman of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, received Thoriq Ibrahim, Ambassador of the Republic of Maldives, along with his delegation. Abdul Aziz Al Shamsi, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Business Sector, and Dr Fatima Khalifa Al Muqarrab, Director of the International Relations Department, sat in. Senior officials from both sides joined them.

The sectors both sides named

Talks covered fish storage and processing, date trading, hospitality, and tourism investment. Those four are not abstract. Cold storage decides whether a catch landed in the Indian Ocean reaches a Gulf buyer in good condition or spoils on the way. Dates travel the other direction, from a region that grows them to a market that imports most of what it eats. Tourism and hospitality sit at the centre of the Maldivian economy, and the delegation named both as areas where it wants partners. The Maldivian side told the chamber it seeks lasting partnerships with Sharjah’s business community across all four.

What puts Sharjah and Maldives in an economic partnership now

Timing helps. UAE-Maldives trade relations already run through fish, with fish fillets among the Maldivian goods sold into the Emirates, according to the Maldives mission in the UAE. That same mission describes the UAE as one of the country’s top trading partners. So the trade exists. What this meeting examined was whether it can widen, and into what.

Ports carry the weight

Both sides discussed Sharjah’s record in port operations and its work building maritime infrastructure. The Maldives plans to widen its seaport network and improve logistics as trade and tourism keep growing. Maldives port development is under way at Thilafushi, where Maldives Ports Limited has been building an international logistics terminal to relieve the commercial harbour at Malé. Sharjah presents itself on the strength of its maritime and logistics infrastructure, which Al Owais described as a gateway for Maldivian companies expanding into regional and global markets. Officials framed Sharjah and Maldives in an economic partnership built on logistics rather than declarations.

The chamber’s wider push

Sharjah’s chamber has been widening its international network, and this meeting fits the pattern. Officials outlined how the body connects local companies to buyers abroad and promotes Sharjah investment opportunities across key sectors. The delegation asked about taking part in exhibitions and business events the chamber runs or supports. That is often where deals begin, in a hall, over a table, between two people who had not met before. Putting Sharjah and Maldives in an economic partnership takes routine contact, not a single visit.

What happens next

Nothing was signed. Al Owais restated the chamber’s commitment to closer ties and offered support to Maldivian companies and entrepreneurs. The delegation praised Sharjah’s development record and its standing as a business hub. Whether the talks move from courtesy to contracts may depend on the ports. If Maldives fisheries exports gain cold chain capacity in Sharjah, the fish arrives in better shape and both sides earn more from the same catch. If they do not, this stays a pleasant morning at a headquarters building. The people with the most riding on it never sit in these rooms. They are the crew on a fishing boat before dawn, and the woman at a resort front desk who wants next season booked.

By Amira Khalil
3 min read

Dubai

Dubai Economic Signals: Three City Data Points Investors Should Watch

For investors trying to read Dubai’s economy before the next GDP release, some of the most useful signals come from daily city activity. Three datasets deserve closer attention: electricity consumption, taxi trips, and parking transactions.

They measure different forms of economic activity. Together, they can create a practical early reading of how the city is behaving. These are Dubai Economic Signals because they originate from infrastructure people and businesses use every day. They do not depend on surveys or quarterly corporate reporting.

DEWA: The electricity behind economic activity

Electricity demand provides one of the clearest physical measures of activity. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority generated 11.09 TWh of electricity in the first quarter of 2026, up 5.65% from the same period a year earlier. Its customer base also increased by 65,086 accounts over the previous 12 months, reaching 1.347 million accounts at the end of March.

The combination matters more than either number alone.

Rising consumption can reflect greater occupancy, construction activity, commercial operations, and industrial demand. Rising customer accounts can indicate continued expansion in Dubai’s residential and business base. DEWA’s 2025 figures provide another reference point. Peak power demand reached 11.39 GW, up 5.83% year on year. Water demand also increased during the year.

For investors, the useful observation is the direction and persistence of these movements.

Dubai Taxi: A live mobility reading

Taxi activity gives a faster view of movement through the city. Dubai Taxi Company reported 10.3 million taxi and limousine trips during Q2 2026. Volumes declined 24.4% year on year during the quarter, after weaker airport and tourism demand. Yet the monthly pattern moved sharply higher. Trips increased about 31% between April and June. June volumes were 11.2% below June 2025, compared with a 36.7% decline in April.

That monthly progression is more useful than a single quarterly number. It shows how rapidly mobility demand can recover after a period of weakness. For Dubai Economic Signals, taxi data therefore works as a high-frequency mobility indicator. It can help identify shifts before broader economic statistics arrive.

Parking: Where vehicles become economic activity

Parking data adds another layer.

Parkin manages approximately 207,000 paid parking spaces across Dubai. Its network covers roadside spaces, plots, multi-storey facilities and selected privately owned locations. During Q1 2026, public parking transactions reached 28.5 million. Developer parking transactions increased 57% year on year to 5.9 million. Parkin also reported 195,200 public parking spaces, up 4% from the previous year.

The data needs careful interpretation because Dubai’s flexible parking tariff structure affects transaction patterns. Still, parking provides something taxi data cannot: evidence of vehicles stopping within specific commercial and residential areas.

That makes it useful for assessing activity around offices, retail districts and mixed-use developments. For Dubai Economic Signals, the strongest reading comes from combining transaction volume with utilisation, seasonal permits and geographic distribution.

Reading the three together

The objective is not to declare an economic recovery from one number. The stronger approach is to look for consistent movement across independent datasets. If electricity consumption rises while taxi activity improves and parking utilisation increases, the evidence points toward broader activity across the city. If only taxi trips rise, the movement may reflect tourism or specific events. If electricity consumption rises while parking activity weakens, the explanation may sit elsewhere, including new capacity, residential occupancy or infrastructure demand.

That is why these Dubai Economic Signals work best as a monitoring system rather than isolated statistics. For investors, the advantage comes from tracking the direction, speed, and divergence of the data each month. The market usually receives economic information after activity has already occurred. These city-level indicators offer a way to watch the activity itself.

That makes Dubai Economic Signals useful for investors assessing Dubai’s next phase of economic performance.

By Amira Khalil
3 min read

Amira Khalil