The balance of foreign assets with Emirati banks increased by 3.2% to reach AED 795.3 billion at the end of last February, an increase of 25.3 billion dirhams, compared to approximately 770 billion dirhams in December 2019.
According to the Emirates News Agency, statistics from the Central Bank showed that foreign assets with banks operating in the country accounted for 25.7% of the total assets of the banking system at the end of February, amounting to 3.095 trillion dirhams.
According to the initial reading of the preliminary figures documented by the central bank, the banking system’s balance index of foreign assets has maintained a progressive approach since the beginning of this year, reflecting the extent of solvency and the strength it has.
The total balance of foreign assets increased from 770 billion dirhams in December 2019 to 789.8 billion dirhams at the end of January 2020, an increase of approximately 2.6%, and the balance continued to rise until it reached the level recorded in February of the same year.
It is clear from the figures that the Emirati national banks acquired 667.7 billion dirhams, constituting 96.5% of the total balance of foreign assets with the banking system in the state at the end of February 2020, while the rest of the balance was recorded in favor of foreign banks.
It is noteworthy that the foreign assets balance item with the banking system in the UAE started the process of widening the difference with the liabilities component of the same assets, five years ago and has maintained the same approach until now.
With the end of last February, the foreign assets of the banking system outperformed the liabilities by 83.6 billion dirhams, while the balance of the first reached 795.3 billion dirhams, the balance of the second amounted to 711.7 billion dirhams in the same month.
