Emirates NBD has held its position as the most considered retail bank in the UAE for a second consecutive year, with 29.2 per cent of UAE adults saying they would consider it the next time they open an account or take up a banking product, a new YouGov survey has found.
ADCB sits second at 24.2 per cent, and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) third at 22.0 per cent, completing an unchanged top three from the prior year.
The rankings, drawn from a survey tracking 25 UAE banking brands, come against a backdrop of a sector reporting total assets of AED 5.56 trillion at end of the first quarter of 2026, according to the Central Bank of the UAE.
| Rank | Brand name | Consideration % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emirates NBD | 29.2% |
| 2 | ADCB (Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank) | 24.2% |
| 3 | First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) | 22.0% |
| 4 | Dubai Islamic Bank | 18.2% |
| 5 | ADIB (Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank) | 18.1% |
| 6 | Emirates Islamic | 14.8% |
| 7 | Mashreq Bank | 14.2% |
| 8 | RAK BANK | 12.7% |
| 9 | HSBC | 12.1% |
| 10 | Mashreq Neo | 10.1% |
Dubai Islamic Bank and ADIB rank fourth and fifth, at 18.2 per cent and 18.1 per cent respectively, two Islamic banking brands sitting close enough together to make that segment of the top five genuinely competitive.
FAB recorded the largest year-on-year gain among all banks tracked, adding 1.1 percentage points to reach its 22.0 per cent score. RAK BANK followed with a 0.9-point increase, while Mashreq Bank and Wio each added 0.8 points. Mashreq Neo rounded out the top five improvers with a 0.4-point rise.
Among Gen Z respondents, the top three remain identical: Emirates NBD leads at 23.9 per cent, ahead of ADCB at 22.3 per cent and FAB at 21.5 per cent.
Emirates NBD’s margin over its nearest competitor is narrower among younger adults than in the general population, and the rest of the Gen Z ranking shows slightly more variety. ADIB moves up to fourth among Gen Z (from fifth overall), and Sharjah Islamic Bank appears in the Gen Z top ten despite not featuring in the overall ranking at all.
On customer recommendation, the story reinforces the consideration data at the top but diverges further down. Emirates NBD posted a net recommendation score of 75.3 among current and former customers, the highest of any bank tracked.
Below the leader, ADCB, ADIB, FAB and NBQ (National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain) cluster within a 5.1-point band.
The most notable divergence is between ADIB and Dubai Islamic Bank. ADIB ranks third on recommendation despite finishing fifth on consideration, suggesting its existing customer base rates it more highly than the broader market might predict.
Dubai Islamic Bank shows the inverse pattern: fourth on consideration, ninth on recommendation, with a net score of 64.4. The gap between second-placed ADCB and ninth-placed Dubai Islamic Bank is 7.4 points, indicating a fairly compressed middle band where several institutions are competing for the same ground.
Seven banks appear in the top ten on both metrics: Emirates NBD, ADCB, FAB, ADIB, Emirates Islamic, HSBC and Dubai Islamic Bank.
