The UAE's 24 national banks and 28 foreign units hold the combined capital of Dh165.5 billion, which is the largest in the Arab World, according to the recently released official figures by the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), a key Arab League institution.

The bank units reported around Dh35billion rise in their combined capital by 2008 end.

The figures for 2009 are not provided yet, but the shareholders equity of the 52 banks is believed to at nearly Dh211.7billion by the end of October as stated by the central bank of UAE.

UAE banks continued adding their capital from the second half of 2008 and through 2009 irrespective of any adverse impact of global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the Unified Arab Economic Report for 2009 claims that UAE owns 14.6 per cent of the Arab World's total oil reserves for becoming the fourth-largest confirmed reserves of crude oil in Arab world. Saudi Arabia has been ranked at top slot as it owns 39.3 per cent of the total oil reserves followed by Iraq and Kuwait, which accounts for 17.1 per cent and 15.1 per cent reserve respectively.

Similarly, the combined capital and reserves of 12 commercial banks of Saudi Arabia stood at around SR131.8billion at the end of 2008.