UAE Bank Assets Reach AED5.815 Trillion as Credit Outpaces Deposits

UAE banks held AED5.815 trillion in gross assets at the end of September 2026, a 4% increase on the second quarter and 11.8% higher than a year earlier, the Central Bank of the UAE's quarterly report shows. Assets grew 1.3% in September alone.

Gross credit expanded faster than the balance sheet as a whole. Lending reached AED2.908 trillion in the third quarter, up 5.5% quarter on quarter and 17.3% year on year. September accounted for AED36.7 billion of that, a 1.3% monthly rise. Domestic credit climbed 1.6% to about AED2.305 trillion, which leaves close to AED600 billion of the gross book booked outside the country.

Deposits rose 2.7% over the quarter to AED3.568 trillion, 12% above the year-earlier level. Resident deposits increased 2.2% to roughly AED3.25 trillion; nonresident deposits climbed 9.1% to AED317.9 billion. Government-related entities supplied 1.4 percentage points of resident deposit growth and the private sector added 0.6 percentage points.

September's deposit move was smaller, a 0.9% gain from about AED3.535 trillion at end-August. Resident deposits rose 0.6% and nonresident deposits 4.1%. Institutional holders swung hardest: government-related entity deposits jumped 9.6% to AED378.2 billion and deposits from other financial corporations rose 7.2% to AED66.2 billion. Private-sector deposits held steady at AED2.345 trillion. Government-sector deposits were unchanged at AED460.4 billion.

Money supply measures advanced alongside them. M3 rose 1.2% in September to AED3.508 trillion and M2 gained 0.6% to more than AED2.938 trillion. M1, which covers currency in circulation outside banks plus monetary deposits, stood at AED1.022 trillion. The three measures track different layers of liquidity, from cash and demand balances at M1 up to the broadest aggregate at M3. The monetary base was AED801.9 billion.

Banks' reserve balances at the central bank rose 31.3% to AED304.7 billion, and their foreign assets reached AED956.2 billion at end-September.

Payment flows moved at scale over the same stretch. Transfers in the first nine months of 2026 totalled about AED21.734 trillion: banks sent AED13.351 trillion and customers about AED8.383 trillion. More than 16.2 million checks worth over AED990.5 billion cleared during the period, a volume that shows paper instruments still carry a meaningful share of business payments alongside electronic transfers.

The gap between credit and deposit growth is the number to watch. Lending is up 17.3% year on year against 12% for deposits, and September's funding gains came overwhelmingly from government-related entities and other financial corporations while private-sector and government balances sat flat. Deposits of that kind are large and mobile. A single quarter of outflow would tighten the liquidity that has funded the loan book. A 31.3% rise in reserve balances offers a cushion, but it also suggests banks are parking more cash at the central bank rather than putting it to work.