Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), a leading Islamic financial institution, reported significant growth achieved by ‘Amwali’ in the first year of its operation. The world’s first Islamic digital bank account gained high traction with 27% month-over-month growth over 12 months.

With over 8,000 total accounts opened since August 2021, ADIB’s Amwali aims to address the gap in a demographic that has been largely underserved in the region. Currently, 74% of customers are Emiratis with a ratio of 61% male, 39% female. In addition, 54% of accounts are in the age group between 15 – 18 years.

When Amwali was first introduced in August 2021, it was intended to empower youth to develop financial management skills early in life. Over the past year, ADIB witnessed that youth are inclined towards acquiring the knowledge and skills to build responsible financial behaviour and make informed financial decisions. Amwali enables them to practice sound money management at a young age while building their financial literacy in the process.

Amwali provides tailored banking experience for target customers’ segments with a plethora of niche features including receiving money from parents and family, tracking balance and spending, creating saving goals, paying friends, and more. Customers of Amwali receive a debit card to use for day-to-day shopping, online payments, cash withdrawals, and can even add it to Apple Pay and enjoy exclusive offers on fashion, electronics, gaming, entertainment, online shopping and more to help them grow into financially smart and successful adults.

In line with its digital transformation strategy, ADIB has constantly been enhancing the digital banking experience for the new generation of customers and introduced an AI chat bot for “Amwali” last year. It provides users with services such as balance inquiries, fund transfers, and transaction history via automated responses.

Since its launch, Amwali has been getting a lot of traction among young people and is adding more customers, while maintaining a high retention rate of Amwali users. ADIB recently received the “Outstanding Innovation in Mobile Banking” award from Global Finance for Amwali and its mobile banking app. The digital bank account recorded approximately 800,000 transactions as of August 2022.

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About ADIB

ADIB is a leading Islamic bank with more than AED 142 billion in assets that was established in 1997 with its shares traded on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). Over 1 million customers benefit from its large distribution network of 62 branches and more than 379 ATMs. The bank also offers world-class online, mobile and phone banking services, providing clients with seamless digital access to their accounts 24 hours a day. ADIB provides retail, corporate, business, private banking and wealth management solutions. ADIB remains one of the leading banks in the recruitment, development and promotion of local talent. The bank has one of the highest Emiratisation ratios with more than 40 percent of the bank’s workforce being UAE Nationals. ADIB has presence in six strategic markets: Egypt, where it has 70 branches, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Sudan, Iraq and Qatar.

Named “Best Islamic Bank globally” by The Financial Times’ The Banker publication and Best Bank in the UAE by Forbes, ADIB has a rich track record of innovation, including introducing the world’s first digital Islamic bank for youth and being the first bank in the UAE to enable account opening through facial recognition. 

For media information, please visit www.adib.ae