UAE banking group Emirates NBD will see low single-digit loan growth in 2011, mainly from retail banking due to a still sluggish recovery in bank lending in the Gulf state after the financial crisis.
Chief executive Rick Pudner said that the retail market presented good growth opportunities, including for the bank's credit cards business and small-and-medium enterprise banking. "We're expecting growth in loans to be about three-four per cent of the balance sheet this year. All banks in the UAE now are very liquid ... looking for opportunities to deploy liquidity. (We see) asset growth of about 5pc this year," said Pudner.
The bank, the third largest in the UAE by market value, reported a 27pc rise in first quarter profit based on a one-off gain of 1.8 billion dirhams ($490.1 million) from its sale of Network International, but loans fell 1pc in the quarter.
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