CBUAE loan repayment deferrals reached AED13.5 billion for 135,031 bank customers by July 30, 2026, according to Central Bank data. The figure comes from the Comprehensive Financial Institution Resilience Package the CBUAE Board approved in March 2026, and it lands alongside a separate data point: the UAE banking sector’s non-performing loan ratio has fallen to 2.8%, its lowest level on record.
The numbers behind the deferrals
The AED 13.5 billion breaks down by borrower type. Large corporates account for AED 9.1 billion across 1,080 entities, SMEs for AED 2.4 billion across 6,198 businesses, and individuals for AED 2 billion across 127,753 people. Individuals make up the large majority of beneficiaries by headcount, while large corporates account for the largest share of value deferred despite the smallest number of participants.
That is a meaningful jump from where the scheme stood roughly two months earlier. A Zawya report covering the package’s first two months, March 1 to May 1, 2026, put total facilities benefiting from deferrals, interest relief and fee waivers at AED 6.2 billion across 65,379 beneficiaries.
The July figure represents more than double the value and roughly double the customer count in the space of about two months. The two figures aren’t perfectly comparable, though: the May figure covers a broader set of relief measures, while the July figure is specific to instalment repayment deferrals.
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Where the package came from
CBUAE’s Board approved the resilience package on March 17, 2026, backed by the Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves of more than AED1 trillion (about $270 billion) and a monetary base cover ratio of 119%, according to Al Etihad’s report on the original approval. The package has five components: expanded access to reserve balances, temporary relief on liquidity and stable funding ratios, temporary release of capital buffers, flexibility to postpone loan classifications for affected customers, and continued financing support for the broader economy.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the CBUAE Board, said at the time of the March approval: “The CBUAE’s precautionary policies and proactive frameworks have consistently demonstrated their effectiveness in promoting resilience.”
Asset quality improved alongside the deferrals
The non-performing loan ratio fell to 2.8% by the end of the second quarter of 2026, down from 8.2% in 2020. The net non-performing loan ratio, which accounts for provisions, fell to 1.3%, down from 3.6% in 2020. The total stock of non-performing loans declined to AED76 billion, down from AED84 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026 and AED142 billion in 2020.
CBUAE attributes the improvement to a combination of measures beyond the deferral scheme itself: intensive inspections, comprehensive asset quality reviews, closer dialogue with industry risk officers, and new guidelines for writing off and recovering non-performing loans in line with international standards. Banking sector fundamentals grew over the same period: total assets rose 12.5% year on year, loans grew 18.1%, and deposits rose 14%, as of June 30, 2026.
Why it matters
For the broader banking sector
A falling NPL ratio alongside a growing deferral scheme is a specific combination worth noting: the deferrals are keeping affected borrowers out of default classification without, so far, showing up as a deterioration in overall loan quality. Whether that holds once deferral periods start expiring for the earliest participants, who have been in the scheme since March, is the open question the current data does not yet answer.
For SMEs and individual borrowers
SMEs and individuals make up nearly all of the 135,031 beneficiaries by headcount, even though large corporates hold the largest share of deferred value. For a small business or individual borrower, a deferral means avoiding a default classification and the credit-history consequences that come with it, without necessarily resolving the underlying repayment pressure that made deferral necessary in the first place.
What’s next
CBUAE has not indicated when the deferral scheme will wind down or whether it will publish further updates before this data point. The more consequential number to watch is what happens to the non-performing loan ratio once deferral periods run out for customers who joined in March, since deferral delays a repayment problem rather than resolving it.
FAQs
What is a loan repayment deferral?
An arrangement that lets a borrower delay loan installment payments for a set period without being classified as in default, typically alongside relief on interest or fees for that period.
What is the CBUAE’s Comprehensive Financial Institution Resilience Package?
A package the Central Bank of the UAE’s Board approved in March 2026, covering monetary policy measures, liquidity relief, capital buffer relief, credit risk flexibility and continued financing support, backed by the CBUAE’s foreign exchange reserves.
What is a non-performing loan ratio?
The share of a bank’s total loans that are in default or close to it. The UAE’s ratio fell to 2.8% by the end of the second quarter of 2026, its lowest level on record.
How is the CBUAE resilience package different from a moratorium?
A moratorium typically pauses payments across the board for a fixed period; the CBUAE’s package gives banks flexibility to defer instalments and postpone loan classifications case by case for affected customers, alongside broader liquidity and capital measures for the banks themselves.
Who benefits most from the CBUAE’s loan deferral scheme?
By number of beneficiaries, individuals make up the vast majority (127,753 of 135,031). By value deferred, large corporates account for the largest share (AED9.1 billion of AED13.5 billion) despite being the smallest group by headcount.
Editor’s Take: The headline number is the AED 13.5 billion, but the more interesting one is the pace: take-up roughly doubled in about two months against the May snapshot. That is a scheme still actively being used, not a one-time relief measure fading out. Credit where it’s due, the NPL ratio falling to a record low at the same time the deferral scheme is growing is a genuinely hard combination to pull off if the deferrals were masking real trouble.