Among FAB's moves to expand lending in 2025 was its application for a three-year guarantee of up to $550 million to fund small businesses and climate finance-related projects in Egypt. The guarantee, which the bank said would free up risk-weighted asset capacity at the group level, was granted by the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency a year ago.

The bank also joined China's cross-border interbank payment system and launched a representative office in Turkey. Customer deposit inflows grew 7% year over year to 841 billion dirhams, driven by the group's diversification efforts. The lender also improved its asset quality, with its nonperforming loan ratio for the period falling by 1.21 percentage points to 2.2%, which it said was an all-time low.

Qatar National Bank (QNB) fell a notch to No. 2 in the latest ranking despite a 7% increase in total assets to $381.6 billion at the end of 2025. The Saudi National Bank was 3rd, Emirates NBD Bank PJSC was 4th and Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp. was 5th.

Israeli lenders Bank Leumi le-Israel BM and Bank Hapoalim BM maintained their positions as the 6th and 7th largest banks by assets, respectively. Fellow Israeli bank FIBI Holdings Ltd. climbed three spots from the previous ranking to place 24th, while Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd. and Israel Discount Bank Ltd. each rose one spot to No. 11 and No. 14, respectively.

For the latest ranking, company assets were adjusted on a best-efforts basis for pending mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, as well as M&A deals that closed after the end of the period. To be eligible for inclusion in pro forma adjustments, the amount of assets being transferred had to be at least $2 billion, unless otherwise noted. Assets reported by non-US-dollar filers were converted to dollars using period-end exchange rates. Total assets were taken on an "as-reported" basis, and no adjustments were made to account for differing accounting standards. The majority of banks were ranked by total assets as of Dec. 31, 2025. In the previous ranking, published April 14, 2025, most company assets were as of Dec. 31, 2024, and were adjusted for pending and completed M&A as of April 3, 2025.

Standard Bank Group Ltd. and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC switched places on the list, with the South African lender advancing to the 8th spot.

Of the 30 banks on the list, South Africa's Investec Group was the sole new entrant, with total assets of $81.0 billion at the end of 2025.

Banque Saudi Fransi dropped the steepest in the ranking, falling five places to the 26th spot, even as the Saudi Arabian lender grew its total assets by 5% year over year to $82.4 billion.

On a country basis, the United Arab Emirates had the largest share of total assets in the sample with roughly $1.191 trillion, followed by Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Banks in the Gulf region are expected to see some deterioration in their financial performance in 2026 following the outbreak of war in the Middle East in late February, S&P Global Ratings said in a March 16 commentary.

Lenders' domestic deposit outflows could reach approximately $307 billion, with Qatari banks potentially facing shortfalls and Bahraini retail banks expected to be the most vulnerable due to the country's worsening external debt, according to Ratings.