UAE residents' savings up by Dh10 billion in first four months of 2021

Emirates: UAE residents saw their savings go up in the first four months of 2021, data from the Central Bank of the UAE revealed.

Funds saved in residents' bank accounts in the UAE have increased by Dh9.77 billion to Dh199 billion during the first four months of 2021, compared to Dh189.22 billion at the end of 2020.

It is projected that savings will grow further over the next few months. Saving accounts in UAE national banks account for 88 per cent of their total balance.

Suvo Sarkar, senior executive vice president and head of retail banking and wealth management, Emirates NBD, said the pandemic has put financial preparedness top-of-mind among customers and accordingly during this period there has been a positive increase in average account balances across customer profiles.

“As it is said, it is a prudent practice to save first and spend what is remaining, rather than the other way around,” Sarkar said.

“We continue to carry out campaigns and activities to encourage customers to save more and manage their finances prudently. Our recent 'Save.Win.Drive.' campaign that incentivised customers to save more for a chance to win attractive prizes was received well with new as well existing customers signing up to participate,” he added.

Overall, individual customer balances have increased by more than 10 per cent over the past year, said the Emirates NBD retail head.

Profitability of UAE banks has jumped by 85 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 as compared to previous three months as deposits increased and loans and advances declined.

According to the latest report by Alvarez & Marsal, loan and advances continued to contract with a 0.7 per cent decrease in the first quarter this fiscal whilst deposits increased to 1.2 per cent.

Sharjah Islamic Bank reported the highest increase deposits up 5.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter, supported by growth in time deposits which grew by 6.4 per cent. On the other hand, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank witnessed the highest drop in deposit of five per cent as time deposits decreased 18.7 per cent.