Outward remittances processed through UAE exchange houses reached Dh188.8 billion in 2025, a 27.8 per cent increase year-on-year, according to the Central Bank of the UAE’s Financial Stability Report 2025.
Personal transfers accounted for the largest share at Dh115.7 billion, followed by trade remittances at Dh63.3 billion. Other remittances totalled Dh8.5 billion, while investment-related transfers reached around Dh1 billion.
The report, published on 17 August 2026 and covered by the Emirates News Agency (WAM), also showed inward remittances through exchange businesses rising sharply, up 53.6 per cent year-on-year to Dh36 billion. Trade-related transfers led inflows at Dh22.8 billion, with personal remittances adding Dh8.1 billion.
Exchange house profits and capital base
Exchange businesses reported net profits of Dh625.6 million in 2025, up 8.2 per cent from the prior year. The sector’s overall capital position rose 4.4 per cent to around Dh4 billion over the same period, according to the Central Bank of the UAE’s Financial Stability data.
The broader banking system also expanded in 2025, with total assets growing 17.1 per cent to Dh5.3 trillion and the loan portfolio expanding 17.8 per cent, driven largely by domestic retail and private corporate lending, the CBUAE Annual Report 2025 shows.
Islamic banking assets and the 2031 strategy
The Financial Stability Report recorded Islamic banking assets at Dh1.329 trillion at end-2025, a 22 per cent increase year-on-year. Assets in the sector have grown from around Dh857 billion in 2022 to Dh956 billion in 2023 and Dh1.089 trillion in 2024, with market share reaching 24.7 per cent of the total banking system last year.
The Central Bank of the UAE supervises 43 Islamic financial institutions, comprising nine Islamic banks, 15 Islamic banking windows, nine Islamic finance companies and 10 Takaful insurance companies.
The Cabinet approved the UAE Strategy for Islamic Finance and Halal Industry on 6 May 2025, according to the Dubai Media Office. The strategy aims to develop larger financial institutions, expand Sharia-compliant services and support sukuk, investment and sustainable finance.
The 2031 targets set under the strategy include Dh4.96 trillion in total Islamic finance assets, of which around Dh2.6 trillion would be Islamic banking assets. The UAE also aims to raise the value of local sukuk issuances listed in the country to more than Dh660 billion, with Islamic finance targeted to contribute around Dh27 billion to GDP by that year. Fitch Ratings noted that international sukuk listed in the UAE carry a separate target of Dh395 billion under the same strategy.
The strategy’s implementation is overseen by a committee chaired by the CBUAE Governor, charged with coordinating federal and local entities across both the Islamic finance and halal industry components of the programme.
The CBUAE’s next scheduled publication on sector performance will be its quarterly monetary and banking data update, which will provide the first post-2025 snapshot of exchange house and banking activity.
