Emirates NBD expands loans 27% in nine months

Emirates NBD reported Dh6.4 billion in third-quarter 2026 net profit on Oct. 21, unchanged from the second quarter, Khaleej Times said in a news article.

Emirates NBD’s growth matters because gross loans increased 27% from the end of 2025 to Dh833 billion, while nine-month income rose 15% year on year to Dh42.2 billion.

Profit before tax was Dh8 billion in the third quarter, also flat versus the prior three months. Quarterly income rose 6% from the second quarter to Dh14.3 billion, while operating expenses increased 18% to Dh4.9 billion, pushing the cost-to-income ratio to 34.2% from 30.7%.

Patrick Sullivan, the group’s chief financial officer, described the Dh8 billion pre-tax result as evidence of “consistent performance” across the year’s first three quarters, according to the article.

For the first nine months of 2026, net profit rose 2% year on year to Dh19.3 billion. Profit before tax increased 4% to Dh24.3 billion after Dh2.1 billion in impairment allowances, or provisions for potential loan losses, and a Dh2.6 billion hyperinflation adjustment.

Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, vice chairman and managing director, linked the performance to “the underlying strength of the Group’s diversified business model and the resilience of the UAE economy”.

The loan book was the main expansion driver. Excluding RBL Bank, which the article identified as part of the bank’s growth, loans rose 18% from the end of 2025. Retail loans grew 17%, corporate loans increased 22%, and new lending totaled Dh174 billion in the first nine months.

Deposits rose 19% from the end of 2025 to Dh935 billion, or 12% excluding RBL Bank. Total assets increased 18% over the same period and 21% from a year earlier, taking the balance sheet above Dh1.38 trillion.

The expansion also brought pressure on profitability measures. Nine-month operating expenses rose 19% year on year to Dh13.3 billion, faster than income growth, and the cost-to-income ratio increased to 31.4% from 30.5% a year earlier.

Net interest margin narrowed to 3.24% from 3.43% a year earlier, while return on tangible equity fell to 18.1% from 20.9%. The bank’s common equity tier 1 ratio, a core capital measure, declined to 13.4% from 14.7% a year earlier and 14.4% at the end of 2025.

Credit quality showed a mixed picture. Impairment allowances of Dh2.1 billion were primarily tied to DenizBank, the group’s Turkish unit, and were partly offset by recoveries at Emirates NBD. A year earlier, the bank recorded a net Dh0.3 billion write-back.

The cost of risk was 37 basis points, equal to 0.37 percentage point, while the impaired-loan ratio improved to 2.0% from 2.5% a year earlier.

The liquidity coverage ratio improved by 12 percentage points from the second quarter to 147%. Emirates NBD said assets under management in the UAE grew 15% since February, while Emirates NBD Capital completed more than 70 debt capital markets transactions this year, raising more than $60 billion across 13 countries.