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.

To view an Excel spreadsheet containing the top 50 Middle East and Africa banks, click here.

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.

Overall, 20 of the 50 banks on the list ranked lower than the previous year, while 11 ranked higher. One bank entered the list while the rest retained their spots.

At the country level, France and the UK were home to 12 banks on the list, each with six banks. The French banks, which are all in the top 20, had the highest combined assets of $12.522 trillion. The UK banks had $8.950 trillion in aggregate assets.

Spain had four banks with combined assets of $4.265 trillion. Germany and Italy each had five banks on the list, with assets totaling $3.887 trillion and $2.915 trillion, respectively.