Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank plans to go regional

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank is pushing ahead with expansion plans in the UAE and wider region as buoyant demand for Islamic banking continues despite global turmoil, its chief executive said on Sunday.

Abu Dhabi Islamic plans to open six new branches in the United Arab Emirates before April and is actively seeking acquisitions and branch expansion in other Gulf and Middle East countries, Tirad Mahmoud told Reuters.

The UAE central bank and finance ministry have together set up Dh120 billion of emergency funding facilities to help them cope with a global credit crisis that has reduced access to and increased the cost of funding.

Mahmoud said Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank had not been a beneficiary of government funding and was not over-leveraged, acting as a net lender on the country's tight interbank market, Mahmoud said in an interview.

"The bank's liquidity position is strong," he said. "We have not slowed lending but we will be prudent and selective."

The Islamic bank's third-quarter profit soared 57.8 per cent and the lender expects 2009 will be a "good year" even as the global financial crisis spreads, Mahmoud said.

"The economy has changed, the market is tougher but opportunities are there and we will capitalise on that," Mahmoud said.

UAE bank assets that comply with Islamic law, including a ban on the receipt of interest, now account for less than 20 percent of total bank assets.