Mashreq Bank: Nine-Month Pre-Tax Profit Up 18% to Record AED 7.3 Billion
Mashreq Bank profit before tax reached a record AED 7.3 billion in the first nine months of 2026, up 18%, the Dubai lender said in a statement.
Photo: Mashreq Bank
Dubai-based Mashreq Bank earned AED 7.3 billion before tax in the first nine months of 2026, an 18% increase on a year earlier and the highest figure it has posted for that period, the lender said in a statement on Thursday, October 29.
Revenue drove much of the gain. Operating income climbed 11% to AED 10.4 billion, and the bank attributed AED 635 million of the extra profit to a 10% rise in operating profit. A further AED 482 million came from lower provisioning: Mashreq booked an impairment charge of AED 366 million over the same months of 2025, but recorded a net release of AED 116 million this year.
Third-quarter earnings
Between July and September, pre-tax profit came to AED 2.5 billion, 19% above the third quarter of 2025. After tax, the quarter yielded AED 2.1 billion, a 21% annual gain. Operating profit was 13% higher than a year before and 6% above the second quarter.
Across the nine months, after-tax profit reached AED 6.1 billion, up 18%. The bank’s effective tax rate was unchanged at 15.7%, reflecting the UAE’s Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT) and the Pillar Two framework. Profit attributable to the parent’s owners grew 18% to AED 6.0 billion, while earnings per share increased 17% to AED 28.8.
Return on equity was 20.4%, up from 19.8% in the 2025 period, and return on assets came in at 2.1%. Equity held by shareholders rose 22% over twelve months to AED 46.0 billion.
Balance sheet grows by AED 100 billion
Total assets reached AED 405.6 billion, an addition of AED 100 billion, or 33%, compared with a year earlier, and 11% more than three months before. Customer loans grew at the same annual pace to AED 190.6 billion, after a 13% quarterly rise in which wholesale and retail borrowers added a net AED 21.5 billion. Including banks, total lending amounted to AED 252.3 billion.
On the funding side, customer deposits were 27% higher at AED 237.1 billion. Since January, they have grown by AED 32.2 billion, more than the AED 26.3 billion increase in loans. Third-quarter lending was financed by AED 9.9 billion of new deposits, a USD 500 million senior bond and repo agreements, and the bank’s CASA ratio was 58%. Mashreq also tapped international capital markets for term funding during the quarter.
Its securities holdings jumped 75% to AED 83.7 billion as surplus liquidity was put to work. Third-quarter investment income totalled AED 264 million, mainly from fair value gains on equities and realised trading gains, more than twice what it contributed a year earlier.
Credit quality and costs
Mashreq’s NPL ratio fell to 0.7%, with coverage at 311%, and its capital adequacy ratio was 16.7%. Costs absorbed 31.4% of income over the nine months as the bank kept investing in digital tools and AI.
Group Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Abdelaal said that spending is meant to speed up service, simplify customer journeys and lift productivity, citing the bank’s in-house tool for financial crime cases.
“Newton, our award-winning GenAI platform for financial crime investigations, has already lifted investigator productivity by around 40% while improving the quality and speed of our investigations.”
Chairman Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair pointed to the UAE’s stable policies, global links and continued investment, adding that local banks had helped sustain economic activity without weakening their financial footing.
