Emirates NBD Posts $7.9 Billion Profit in 9M-2024

Emirates NBD, one of the leading banks in Dubai, on Thursday reported a record profit of $7.9 billion for the first nine months of 2024 as the Group is strategically positioned to benefit from regional growth and consumer confidence.

Over $27.23 billion in new loans have been provided to customers in 2024 across the Group’s network. Income grew 7% in the third quarter of 2024, driven by strong loan growth, improving margins and higher fee & commission income.

Emirates NBD’s digital wealth platform has propelled the Group’s Assets Under Management (AUM) above $10.89 billion as the product offering expanded to include fractional bonds & sukuks, equities and mutual funds.

Emirates Islamic Bank is the Islamic Banking arm of Emirates NBD Group, also delivered its strongest ever results with an excellent $680 million profit with very strong customer financing growth of 24% in between January and September this year. The branch expansion into Saudi Arabia enabled its loan book to grow by a very impressive 49% in 2024 in the Kingdom.

Key Highlights

The Group reported a higher profit of 9% on significant loan growth, a low-cost funding base, strong transaction volumes and substantial recoveries and the total income up to $8.96 billion on strong loan growth coupled with an excellent stable, low-cost funding mix.

Substantial loan growth with lending up 9% in the first nine months of 2024, delivering impressive growth across all business units and international locations, enabling upward revision in loan growth guidance.

The deposit mix is a key strength and it grew $16.34 billion in the first three quarters, including a $8.98 billion increase in current & savings accounts. The Net Interest Margin improved to 3.75% in the third quarter of 2024 as DenizBank NIMs continued to improve on favourable loan pricing and stable funding costs.

The digital wealth volumes were up fivefold in 2024 as offering expanded to include mutual funds, in addition to fractional bonds & sukuks and global & local equities and ENBD X has a global market leading digital adoption rate of 91%.

Strategically Positioned

Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, Vice Chairman and Managing Director said that Emirates NBD’s profit surged as the Group is strategically positioned to benefit from regional growth and consumer confidence.

The Group’s solid balance sheet supported a 9% increase in lending, with more than $27.23 billion in new loans provided throughout the region in 2024, he said.

Emirates NBD Group CEO Shayne Nelson said that income grew 7% in Q3-2024, driven by strong loan growth, improving margins and higher fee & commission income.

“The Group expanded its digital wealth offering to include mutual funds, in addition to fractional bonds & sukuks and global & local equities. Emirates NBD is now recognised as the leading bank in the region for Sustainable solutions.

“We are delighted to enhance our product offering with Sustainable Fixed deposits and support a strategic partner with an ESG-linked working-capital facility, helping promote sustainable financing in Saudi Arabia,” he noted.

All business units achieved an outstanding performance with record retail lending, a one-third market share of UAE credit card spend and Corporate lending originating $19.06 billion of gross new loans as it leverages the Group’s regional presence, he added.

Emirates NBD Group’s Chief Financial Officer Patrick Sullivan said that fee and commission income grew strongly, benefiting from the investment in digital, product enhancements and straight through processing.

He also said that the loan growth guidance was revised upwards on continued strong regional demand while the cost of risk guidance was prudently revised due to the impact of higher interest rates.