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Abu Dhabi: The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) announced plans to open 28 more branches in the UAE in 2008, adopt a more aggressive retail banking marketing policy, and increase the value of project finance by 20 per cent, senior officials said yesterday.
Corporate banking accounted for about 80 per cent of NBAD's revenues in 2006, while most of the banks expanded retail activities substantially to address the growing needs of individual in a relatively low interest rate environment.
"We will now address this segment aggressively as we plan, in addition to the 37 per cent increase in branches, to increase the number of ATMs by 27 per cent to 240, as well as enhancing our tele-banking and internet banking facilities," John Malouf, the new head of NBAD's retail banking group said.
"The increasing salaries, and incomes, as well as the lower interest rate will further drive the retail operations, and despite of claims that the UAE is overbanked, we still see enough room for expansion, as we will capitalise on our base of more than 220,000 clients," he added, referring to the increasing incomes and population.
The number of branches by the end of 2007 stood at 75, while the number of ATMs stood at 189. In 2006, the total value of NBAD's project finance stood at about Dh33 billion. The 2007 figures will be announced with the bank's results in a week.
"We have provided the energy sector with Dh15 billion, the industrial sector with Dh10 billion, the aviation sector with Dh5 billion, ports and ship building with Dh5 billion and Dh13 billion for a variety of sectors in terms of project finance in 2007," Abdullah Bin Khalaf Al Otaiba, head of NBAD's corporate banking group, said.
"Lower interest rates will result in an increasing demand for finance, and we intend to address all our clients' needs, resorting to innovative methods in raising funds, such as bonds, as increasing capital is a lengthy procedure. Nevertheless, our capital will increase when we announce our results in a week's time," he added.
NBAD also plans to pay more attention to Small and Medium Enterprises, as these represent 75 per cent of the companies operating in the UAE," Saif A. Al Shahhi, senior general manager of the domestic banking division, said.
"Our support for the real estate sector, a major driver for banks' returns, will continue, while we always commit ourselves to the ceilings set by the central bank, allocating less than 20 per cent of the total value of our deposits to the sector," he added.
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