ADIB Soars: 200K New Customers and Groundbreaking Open Finance License Drive AED 6.4 Billion Profit Surge!

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has reported robust nine-month results, demonstrating significant growth across its key financial indicators and a strong strategic push into digital and fintech innovation. The bank’s revenue surged to AED 9.7 billion, marking a 6% year-on-year increase. This growth was primarily driven by an 11% rise in funded income to AED 6.1 billion, reflecting expanding financing volumes across both retail and wholesale banking sectors. While non-funded income remained broadly flat at AED 3.6 billion, net fee and commission income saw a healthy uptick, reaching AED 591 million in the third quarter, an 11% increase quarter-on-quarter and 9% year-on-year, boosted by card income and processing fees.

Profit after tax for the nine-month period reached AED 5.6 billion, up 6%, delivering an "industry-leading" return on equity of 28%. Earnings per share also increased by 5% to AED 1.38. ADIB's balance sheet expanded even faster than its income statement, with total assets climbing 18% to AED 318 billion. Gross customer financing saw a remarkable 25% year-on-year increase, adding AED 43 billion over twelve months to reach AED 218 billion. Retail financing grew 21% to AED 109 billion, and wholesale financing expanded 29% to AED 86 billion, with government-related entities now constituting 26% of the financing book. Customer deposits rose 17% to AED 259 billion, and current and savings accounts (CASA) continued to represent a high 60% of this total, one of the highest ratios in the sector.

Distinguishing ADIB’s performance is its concurrent improvement in asset quality despite significant book expansion. Impairment charges fell by 12% to AED 451 million, reducing the cost of risk to 30 basis points. Non-performing financing dropped from AED 5.7 billion to AED 4.4 billion a year earlier, resulting in a non-performing asset (NPA) ratio of 2.0%, the lowest in the bank’s history. Provision coverage, excluding collateral, significantly improved from 89.3% to 114.3%. Operating costs increased by 9% to AED 2.8 billion, attributed by ADIB to strategic investments in people, technology, and business capabilities. The cost-to-income ratio stood at 29.1%, an increase of 88 basis points year-on-year, yet still considered lean by regional standards. Capital ratios did see a slight movement in the opposite direction, with the Common Equity Tier 1 ratio at 12.4% at the end of September, down 64 basis points, due to a 15% growth in risk-weighted assets. The bank’s AED 1.75 billion rights issue is aimed at reinforcing its capital headroom for future growth under its Vision 2035 strategy.

Beyond the financial figures, ADIB has made notable strategic disclosures, particularly in the fintech space. The bank has become the first in the UAE to be licensed as an Open Finance Provider under the Central Bank’s AlTareq regulation. This third-party provider license enables ADIB to aggregate customer-permissioned account data from other banks and present it through a single interface, a role traditionally held by fintech firms. This positions a Sharia-compliant bank as an aggregator rather than merely being aggregated. Furthermore, ADIB has appointed a dedicated Chief AI Officer to scale AI use cases across customer experience, operations, and internal processes. Its upgraded digital onboarding processes for home finance approvals and card applications now allow both existing and new customers to secure approvals or instant card access through fully digital, straight-through processes, drastically reducing onboarding times from days to minutes.

Physical distribution has also been strategically redesigned. Following the launch of its universal branch at Dubai Hills Mall, ADIB has opened an AI-enabled digital branch in Al Ain, integrating self-service terminals, kiosks, smart tellers, and in-person support. On the product front, the bank introduced "ADIB Arrive," a proposition for new UAE residents offering pre-arrival onboarding, salary-transfer rewards, and preferential banking benefits. It also expanded its co-branded card portfolio with Marriott Bonvoy and Aldar, the latter rewarding spending within Aldar's extensive ecosystem. These initiatives have contributed to a customer base expansion of over 200,000 in nine months. In sustainability, ADIB has mobilized AED 23.3 billion in sustainable finance, progressing towards its target of AED 60 billion by 2030.

Leadership commentary reinforced the bank's strong trajectory. Chairman H.E. Jawaan Awaidah Al Khaili highlighted that ADIB's continued growth validates its long-term plan, citing strong financing momentum, an expanding customer base, and robust asset quality as key factors positioning the bank for the next phase of growth under Vision 2035. Group Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Abdelbary emphasized the broad-based nature of this growth, spanning profitability, customer acquisition, financing expansion, and asset quality, all supported by a healthy pipeline across retail and wholesale banking.

Industry observers, such as The Fintech Times, noted that ADIB's update challenges the historical perception of Islamic banks in the Gulf being cautious on technology. The significant increase in financing coupled with a falling NPA ratio speaks to a strong credit story, while the 200,000-customer intake, the Open Finance aggregator license, and the appointment of a Chief AI Officer clearly indicate a strong fintech narrative. The UAE's AlTareq framework is recognized as an ambitious open finance regime, and ADIB's choice to be a data consumer as well as a provider signifies a strategic bet on building a future-proof customer interface faster than fintechs can build balance sheets. ADIB is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, and has an international presence in Egypt, Iraq, the United Kingdom, and Qatar.