National banks in the UAE have largely boosted their presence through the emirates over the past few months but the expansion coincided with diminishing profile by foreign units, official figures showed yesterday.
Over the past seven months, the 24 national banks have strengthened their operations through out the UAE with 58 new branches while the 28 foreign banking units operating in the country cut their presence by 35 branches, showed the figures by the UAE Central Bank.
From 573 at the start of September last year, the number of national bank branches increased to 614 at the end of 2008 and peaked at 631 at the end of March following the opening of new branches by several banks.
In contrast, foreign bank branches declined from 117 in September to 82 at the end of 2008 and remained unchanged at the end of March.
The Central Bank report showed the changes in the banking sector affected only branches as there was no change in the number of head offices.
The report also showed that foreign banks have overtaken national units in terms of electronic banking service units, which increased in foreign banks from 35 to 38 in the same period. Units controlled by national banks rose from 19 to 21.
At the end of April, the UAE's 52 banks controlled about Dh1.48 trillion in assets, the largest in the Arab World. Their combined credits stood at about Dh961 billion and investments at Dh114bn.
Traditionally, national banks have controlled more than two thirds of the UAE banking sector's total assets and loans. The UAE is considered as an overbanked country in terms of the number of branches and its population.
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