The impact of foreign direct investment inflows on nonperforming loans: the case of UAE

Abstract

The banking sector is at risk of worsening loan quality, which is a major threat to the financial system’s stability. The impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on nonperforming loans (NPLs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is empirically investigated in this study. The data from 2008 to 2017 are collected and analyzed through the ordinary least squares (OLS) technique. The findings reveal that FDI inflows reduced the size of NPLs during the economic crisis. Also, the combined effect of higher FDI inflows and bank efficiency reduced the size of NPLs for banks, while the combined effect of FDI inflows and better institutions, such as strong regulatory quality, did not reduce the size of NPLs but rather increased the size of NPLs. The findings have implications and contribute to the literature to establish a relationship between FDI inflows and NPLs by examining the relationship between FDI inflows and NPLs in the context of banks in the UAE.