★★★★☆3.8 / 5 Few foreign banks in the Emirates have stayed as deliberately small as Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait. It arrived in 1987 as the first Kuwaiti bank to set up in the UAE, and nearly forty years later…

★★★★☆ 4.3 / 5 — BNP Paribas has been in the UAE since 1973 over five decades of continuous presence that puts it ahead of most foreign banks operating in the country. It does not position itself as a bank…

HBL UAE works best as a focused utility bank  not a full-service banking solution for everyone. Pakistani expats get genuine value from the remittance speed, the direct Pakistan account connection and the long-standing corridor expertise that newer banks simply do…

★★★★☆ 4.3 / 5 Zand Bank P.J.S.C. holds the distinction of being the UAE’s first independent, fully licensed digital-only bank, having received its Central Bank of the UAE licence in July 2022. Chaired by prominent Emirati businessman Mohamed Alabbar, Zand…

Crédit Agricole CIB, the corporate and investment banking division of France’s Crédit Agricole Group, has maintained a presence in the United Arab Emirates for more than five decades, making it one of the longest-established foreign banking groups in the region.…

★★★☆☆  3.6 / 5 Doha Bank is not trying to be everything to everyone in the UAE, and that honesty is actually refreshing. It runs as a licensed foreign branch of Doha Bank Q.P.S.C., Qatar’s well-established commercial bank founded in…

★★★☆☆ 3.2 / 5 Bank Saderat Iran (BSI) UAE operates as a foreign branch of one of Iran’s oldest and largest state-owned commercial banks, with a presence in the United Arab Emirates stretching back several decades. In a banking landscape…

★★★★☆ 4.3 / 5 Bank of China Limited (BoC) is one of the four largest state-owned commercial banks in China and the most internationally active Chinese lender, maintaining a presence in more than 60 countries worldwide. In the UAE, BoC…

Emirates NBD is the UAE’s biggest bank by assets and, for most residents, the one they encounter first  whether through a salary transfer mandate from their employer or a branch around the corner from home. Formed in 2007 through the…