Abu Dhabi, UAE – Banking assets continued to grow during 2025.
It increased by more than 780 billion dirhams during the year, reaching approximately 5.34 trillion dirhams at the end of December 2025, compared to approximately 4.56 trillion dirhams at the end of December 2024.
According to the Monetary and Banking Developments Report for December issued by the Central Bank, on a monthly basis, banking assets recorded an increase of 1.7% during December 2025 compared to the end of November of the same year.
According to the report, total bank credit during 2025 rose to about 2.57 trillion dirhams at the end of December from about 2.18 trillion dirhams at the end of December 2024, an annual increase of nearly 390 billion dirhams.
During December 2025, credit recorded a growth of 1.5% compared to the end of November.
About two-thirds of this growth was driven by an increase in foreign currency credit of about 25.8 billion dirhams.
While local credit shares amounted to about 11.6 billion dirhams.
The growth in domestic credit was attributed to a 0.6% increase in credit to the private sector and a 1.8% increase in credit to government-linked entities.
In addition, credit to other financial institutions grew by 10.9%, while the decline in credit to the government sector limited this growth.
Rise in bank deposits
Regarding bank deposits, they rose to approximately AED 3.307 trillion at the end of December, up from approximately AED 2.85 trillion at the end of December 2024.
It achieved annual growth of approximately 433 billion dirhams.
At the monthly level, bank deposits increased by 2.2% during December 2025 compared to the end of November, driven by a 1.3% growth in resident deposits and a 12.2% increase in non-resident deposits.
Among resident deposits, private sector deposits increased by 2.8%.
Deposits from government-linked entities also increased by 4.8%, and deposits from other financial institutions by 12.9%.
While government sector deposits declined by 10.4%.
The monetary base also increased by 5.4% during December 2025 compared to the end of November.
It reached approximately AED 895.7 billion, driven by a 1.9% growth in cash issued and a 63.4% increase in current accounts and overnight deposits of banks and other financial institutions at the Central Bank.
This is despite a 9.1% decline in reserve accounts.
While Islamic banknotes and certificates of deposit remained largely unchanged.
