Realising strategic rewards

Annual Report 2018

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Highlights

AED 917.5 million

Net Profit

AED 1.5 billion

Operating Expenses

AED 34.1 billion

Customer Deposits

AED 3.8 billion

Net Operating Income

AED 52.7 billion

Total Assets

38.9%

Cost to Income

More than AED 25 m saved through cost optimization

38 branches
in UAE

260,000 number of customers served via online channels

Improved customer experience on IVR resulted in

25% reduction in overall call transfers and

35% increase in authenticated call transfers to phone banking agents

RAKBANK at a Glance

Personal Banking

A dominant contributor to RAKBANK’s bottom line, with phone and digital banking platforms to enhance service delivery

Business Banking

The market leader in the UAE’s SME segment, with two new suites of services tailored for clients’ specific needs

Wholesale Banking

Solid growth in both the commercial and corporate parts of the business, supported by improved quality of assets and new lending products

Treasury

An enhanced range of funding options and a wider spectrum of clients

Financial Institutions Group

A newly shaped stand-alone business unit aiming to capture very promising additional income flows

Insurance

An area of strong growth potential, particularly among the UAE’s growing middle class and expatriate segments

Islamic Banking

Now a fully-fledged Islamic window offering services across all areas of the Bank, doubling its size over the past year

dubai-quality-award-vector-logo

Dubai Quality Appreciation Award

Dubai Service Excellence Scheme Award

‘Best SME Bank in the UAE’ by the Banker Middle East Industry Awards 2018

Best Overall Customer Experience at Gulf Digital Experience Awards

Best Omnichannel Experience award – Genesys

Asian Banker for ‘Best Blockchain’ under the‚ Technology Innovation Awards’ category

Statements

Chairman’s statement

“It is a matter of pride to witness how the Bank has not only weathered recent economic challenges, but tackled them head on while changing and growing along the way.”

Dear Shareholders,

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to present the Annual Report and audited Financial Statements for RAKBANK and its subsidiaries for the year ended 31 December 2018. With the completion of our previous 3-year strategic plan and agreement on our subsequent such plan for 2018-2020, we are in a strong position to reap the strategic rewards of the work we have done to broaden our business base and diversify our income streams. It is a matter of pride to witness how the Bank has not only weathered the recent global economic challenges we have faced in the UAE but tackled them head on while changing and growing along the way.

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CEO’s message

Realising strategic rewards

Strategic rewards cannot simply be measured in terms of revenue and profit. They derive from taking the right decisions to grow a balanced business, both in terms of driving revenues and making them sustainable and robust. While there were headwinds in the UAE’s economy in 2018, which we needed to factor into our lending strategy and overall expectations, as well as pressure on fee income and increased costs, our net revenues have progressed compared to the previous years, demonstrating beyond question the underlying strength and maturity of the Bank. To put it simply, the work we have done over the last few years has significantly improved the ‘quality’ of our earnings.

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Strategy

The cornerstone of RAKBANK’s current 3-year strategic plan is diversification. Our relevance and reach to customers depend upon the diversity of our product and service offering as well as the digital channels we use to deliver it. This strengthens our income streams and reinforces our returns through economic cycles. For Personal Banking, our goal was to maintain both a qualitative and quantitative approach to growth. In Business Banking we reaffirmed our relationships with SME clients with state-of-the-art digital solutions. Furthermore, RAKBANK developed both the Financial Institutions and Wholesale Banking divisions due to the growing maturity of this part of the business, which aims to widen the Bank’s reach and diversify future income streams.

How can we make sure that we are relevant to our customers, and that we offer them all the services they need from us? Do we have the capabilities to do so? By focusing on customer loyalty and shifting our focus to the motivational aspects of our value to customers, we have been able to co-ordinate our service model more effectively. It is crucial for RAKBANK to realize our ambition in this respect – and Personal and Business Banking remain primary engines of this aspiration. Significant progress to achieve operational excellence and to establish a complete product range was achieved in the previous 3-year plan, and a strong offering that matches market appetite is now firmly in place. Additional steps will be taken to react to market conditions as and when appropriate, but the main goal going forward is to become more targeted in our marketing and engagement strategy.

We know our business and we like to believe we are good at it, but we recognize that succeeding is not just about pricing and managing risk. An ongoing digital transformation (embracing where necessary alternative fintech solutions) continued to be a key strategic aim of the Bank throughout the year, helping us to keep things simple for our clients and ensuring they find banking with us easy and convenient.

The impact of our diversification strategy across divisions has been cohesive and significant. In Personal Banking it was represented by a new analytics and strategy capability being introduced, which has helped to provide a more data-driven approach to ensure strong customer acquisition, loyalty and profitability. Other new revenue streams, such as becoming a merchant acquirer in 2018, were also developed. Likewise, in Business Banking we were able to capitalize on our position as market leaders in the important SME segment by rebalancing our risk in the portfolio, enabling it to beat its profit targets and meet its operating profit plan.

RAK Islamic entered new areas of focus, not just for itself but for the overall Bank, including national segments as well as SME and corporate banking. Meanwhile, our transition from a largely retail and commercial bank into one with full-spectrum capabilities for larger corporates has been supported by our diversification agenda.