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The UAE-based digital bank Wio Bank is looking to double its retail customer numbers in 2025 and significantly boost its SME customer base.
CEO Jayesh Patel said the two-and-a-half year old bank has 220,000 retail customers and 30 billion dirhams ($8.2 billion) in deposits, but he aims to increase that by one and a half to two times in the coming year.
The bank achieved profit of AED 2 million in 2023, which had grown to ‘many times’ that in 2024, he said, after revenue grew from by two and a half times.
Wio is targeting customers with a minimum of AED 35,000 in savings and has a focus on helping them grow wealth and improve overall consumer financial health, he added.
It also serves 80,000 SMES, with plans to increase that to around 140,000 in 2025, and is also looking to expand into new services, integrating with food and e-commerce platforms to improve user experience.
Patel said the bank was in conversation with several platforms and hoped to make an announcement in Q1 2025.
“We see continuous capital moving to the UAE – we see businesses moving to the UAE, we are seeing businesses who have invested planning to invest more for the next year,” he said.
“The influence of new businesses and new people continues into the next year. We are very optimistic.”
The bank is to launch credit facilities for SMEs, in response to customer demand, as well as its payroll proposition to allow companies to move salaries.
On the retail front, the bank and has already launched a facility called MyCash, which allows customers to access their salaries early at a price of AED 1 per AED 1,000 per day, which Patel said allows the user to make an informed decision on the fee involved, in line with a key aim of the bank improving overall consumer financial health.
(Reporting by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Brinda Darasha)
