Emirates: Individual deposits in UAE banks continued to rise in the last quarter of 2020, despite a raft of economic challenges created by the pandemic, WAM reported, citing data from the country’s central bank.

UAE banks recorded 13 billion dirhams ($3.5 billion) in individual deposits during the fourth quarter of last year – upping the cumulative balance of deposits to 493.9 billion dirhams.

The central bank said these deposits account for 26.2 percent of the total balance of this type of investment, which stood at 1.89 trillion dirhams by the end of 2020.

The data comes as banks in the region emerge from a global health crisis with many businesses and individual borrowers struggling to repay loans.