UAE Islamic finance strategy targets Dh2.56 trillion in assets by 2031

August 13, 2026
3 min read

PUBLISHED BY ICN PRESS

The UAE plans to grow local Islamic bank assets to Dh2.56 trillion by 2031.
Islamic banking assets reached Dh1.4 trillion by June 2026, with 43 licensed Islamic financial institutions.
The plan tightens legal and Shari’ah rules and places customer protection at its centre.
It reaches beyond banking into sukuk, Islamic funds and the halal economy.

The UAE Islamic finance strategy sets a target of Dh2.56 trillion in local Islamic bank assets by 2031, part of a wider effort to root Shari’ah-compliant finance deeper in the national economy. Islamic banking assets in the country stood at Dh1.4 trillion as of June 2026, and 43 Islamic financial institutions now hold licences. The UAE ranked third worldwide in the Islamic Finance Development Indicator for 2025. Those figures give the plan a base to build from.

Targets under the plan sit inside the UAE Strategy for Islamic Finance and Halal Industry 2025 to 2031, which the Cabinet approved in May 2025. The Central Bank of the UAE is coordinating with federal and local bodies to tie Islamic finance and the halal industry more closely to the broader economic agenda. Two goals run through it. Scale the sector, and give it firmer legal ground.

Clearer rules under the UAE Islamic finance strategy

Much of the UAE Islamic finance strategy turns on legal and Shari’ah certainty. The Commercial Transactions Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022, carries a dedicated chapter on Islamic finance contracts and financing arrangements. It ties parts of the law to Shari’ah standards issued by the Higher Shari’ah Authority and sets out how to read those provisions and settle disputes. Once the Higher Shari’ah Authority approves them, the Central Bank can issue regulations of its own.

The framework works toward clearer rights and obligations, standard Shari’ah interpretations, and fewer legal disputes tied to Islamic financial transactions. For customers and banks alike, that means fewer grey areas.

Costs and supervision

The Central Bank Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025, governs how Islamic financial institutions operate and how supervisors oversee them. Under its terms, these institutions can handle transactions involving real estate and goods where a Shari’ah-compliant structure calls for it. The law also exempts Islamic financial transactions from registration requirements and similar fees or costs. Customer protection ranks among the framework’s stated goals, next to stronger trust in Islamic finance services and a legal setting that supports new products.

Established at the Central Bank in 2018, the Higher Shari’ah Authority works to bring Shari’ah practice into line across institutions. It has issued more than 280 standards and resolutions to govern Islamic financial transactions and narrow differences in interpretation, along with more than nine Shari’ah governance standards. Prudential standards covering financial integrity, risk management and stability complete the supervisory base.

Beyond banking

The UAE Islamic finance strategy reaches past the banks. Plans under it develop the market for sukuk, Islamic money markets and Islamic funds, while backing larger and more competitive institutions. Sukuk issuances form a central part of that ambition. The plan also draws Islamic finance in the UAE closer to the halal economy. It calls for more local production of high-value halal goods, a halal traceability system to support re-exports, and added backing for SMEs and technology startups in the sector.

Set against the region, the direction fits a pattern. Islamic finance in the UAE is shifting from a parallel channel toward a core part of how the economy raises and moves capital. The UAE Islamic finance strategy puts a number and a date on that move, and Dh2.56 trillion is the figure to watch.

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

Media

Harry and Meghan Moving Back to Britain With Security Still Unresolved

Harry and Meghan moving back to Britain has landed on the royal household with almost no warning. The couple will relocate within weeks to a private residence somewhere outside London. Their children are already signed up at British schools. King Charles learned of the plan on Sunday. He played no part in the decision.

Nothing was said about it when Harry, Meghan and the children visited Charles at Highgrove, his private home, last month. Four media outlets in the UK, the United States and Australia broke the story on Wednesday night at the same time. The couple has not explained their reasons.

The exit six years ago carried its own shock. Harry and Meghan stepped back from working royal life in 2020 and left for North America. They pointed to media intrusion, attacks on Meghan and thin palace support. Their plan for a half-in, half-out role had been rejected by Queen Elizabeth II. Those problems have not gone away.

Harry and Meghan moving back to Britain puts protection back in play

Security is the practical question, and it is a regulatory one. Prince Harry’s UK security has been contested since February 2020, when his taxpayer-funded police protection was downgraded after he stopped working as a royal. He fought that decision through the courts and lost at the Court of Appeal last year. A separate bid to pay for the policing himself also failed, after the Home Office raised concerns about wealthy people buying state cover.

RAVEC royal protection decisions sit with the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, an independent body overseen by the Home Office. The prime minister does not make the call. Neither does the Home Secretary, who takes no part in individual cases. Because the old arrangements assumed the family lived abroad, RAVEC has to rule again.

What a new ruling could cost

The Home Office describes the UK protective security system as rigorous and proportionate. It also refuses to publish detail, on the grounds that doing so could weaken the arrangements and put people at risk. So do not expect a quick public answer.

The stakes here are money and reach. Private bodyguards in Britain cannot carry firearms. They also sit outside the police intelligence loop. If the Duke and Duchess of Sussex return without state cover, Harry pays the difference himself and works with a narrower set of tools.

Harry and Meghan moving back to Britain also reopens the media fight. Harry won legal actions against Mirror Group Newspapers and the publishers of the Sun and News of the World. In July he lost his case against the publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday over unproven claims of unlawful information gathering. Relations with parts of the press are worse now than in 2020.

Family relations, still cool

There is some repair with Charles. Harry has said his father did not return his calls at points over the past six years. The Prince Harry King Charles relationship reads warmer today, though palace officials stay wary about private information reaching print.

Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, said closer private access to his son and grandchildren is good for Charles personally, but building a reasonable degree of trust will take a long time. He said the break took more than six years, so the repair will not take six weeks.

William is the harder problem. The brothers are estranged. Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent, suggests the future king would be apoplectic at the return and at rival courts forming.

What happens next

Archie and Lilibet’s British schools start in early September, and that sets the clock. Harry and Meghan moving back to Britain restores no official duties. Charles has made clear that their status as private, non-working members of the family does not change. Any work they take on runs through their own charitable projects.

By Khaled Darwish
4 min read

Aviation

New Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers

Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers a year, and Dubai has now decided how most of them will move once they are inside the gates. Dubai Aviation City Corporation, a government entity, awarded the contract for a 50-kilometre automated people mover system to a consortium led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The Japanese group describes the network as the largest of its kind at any airport. Nine stations are planned, served by 165 driverless vehicles. Completion is scheduled for December 2031, a year ahead of the airport’s planned opening.

Who governs the award?

Dubai Aviation City Corporation sits inside the emirate’s government, which means the money and the accountability are public. Joining MHI are MHI Mobility Engineering Services and the Indian engineering group Larsen and Toubro. The Japanese partners lead design, procurement and testing of the vehicles and signalling, plus overall system integration. L&T takes the remaining subsystems, from design through on-site construction.

Neither the corporation nor MHI has published a price. L&T has classified its portion as a large order under its own reporting bands, a range of 2,500 crore to 5,000 crore rupees, or somewhere between 280 million and 560 million dollars. The precise figure stays undisclosed. Delivery is being implemented through Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects. MHI is not a stranger here, having built the Dubai Metro, which opened in 2011.

The first phase is set at 150 million passengers

Capacity is the reason. Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers a year in its final form, alongside 12 million tonnes of cargo, across a site of about 70 square kilometres with five parallel runways. Reaching that figure would make it the world’s largest airport by design capacity. The first phase is set at 150 million passengers, and the higher number is a long-term ceiling rather than an opening-day promise.

Dubai International handled 95.2 million passengers in 2025, its busiest year on record, and has almost no room left to stretch. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum approved the new passenger terminal and a 128 billion dirham budget in April 2024, about 35 billion dollars. The Al Maktoum International Airport expansion has been running through a series of contract awards since.

A benchmark set well above Dallas

The 50-kilometre network would run more than six times the length of the current leader, the roughly 8-kilometre SkyLink at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, the most heavily travelled airport in the world, carries around 91 million passengers a year and moves them internally on its Plane Train. Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers over time, close to three times Atlanta’s present traffic. Transfers become the binding constraint at that scale. MHI says the system is meant to cut journey times inside the Dubai World Central airport, improve convenience and keep operations efficient as volumes climb.

Technology decisions held open

Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, has said the second phase is being designed around new technology and around convenience for travellers. He has spoken of building an airport experience like none other, and has indicated some equipment choices will be taken late in the programme, so newer systems can still be adopted. Keeping options open guards against obsolescence. It also loads risk onto the schedule, and on a public project of this size the timetable is the one measure outsiders can check without access to the books. The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries contract fixes one of the larger pieces early. Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers, and the people mover decides whether an airport of that size works from the inside.

By Mariam Al-Yazidi
3 min read

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UAE Islamic finance strategy targets Dh2.56 trillion in assets by 2031

UAE Islamic finance strategy targets Dh2.56 trillion in assets by 2031

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Clearer rules under the UAE Islamic finance strategy