Mashreq Bank says its AI platform Newton lifts financial crime investigators' productivity by 40 percent
Mashreq Bank, one of the largest banks in the UAE, announced that its generative AI platform “Newton” has increased the productivity of its financial crime investigation teams by about 40 percent, at a time when banks are facing mounting pressure to detect suspicious transactions quickly and accurately.
The figure is not a general estimate but an internal result measured by the bank on its actual operations, although it did not disclose the precise measurement methodology. It comes in a broader context: financial institutions in the UAE reported roughly 80,000 suspicious transactions to the authorities last year, a rise of 28 percent over the previous year, and banks accounted for more than four-fifths of that total, according to official figures.
From the Platform to the Outcome
Group CEO Ahmed Abdel-Aal said the focus is on “embedding these capabilities across the business”, and the reference goes beyond a single tool to an AI infrastructure integrated into the first lines of defence. The financial results for the first quarter support the narrative: nine-month net profit rose 18 percent to AED 6.12 billion ($1.7 billion), operating income grew 11 percent to AED 10.41 billion, while the non-performing loan ratio improved to 0.7 percent from 1.1 percent a year earlier.
Regional Context: Supervision Precedes Adoption
The jump in suspicious reports (28 percent) does not necessarily indicate that financial crime is spreading at the same rate; it also reflects tighter regulation and stricter reporting obligations that have pushed banks to strengthen their systems. The Financial Institutions Resilience Package (FIRP) launched by the central bank in March benefited roughly 156,000 individuals and entities, and Mashreq offered “official relief measures” to certain clients without disclosing their numbers.
Conversely, allowances for loan and advance impairments rose to about AED 3 billion at the end of September, up from AED 2.6 billion at the end of 2025, while the loan portfolio jumped 33 percent to AED 191 billion, total assets grew 33 percent to AED 406 billion, and deposits increased 27 percent to AED 2.4 trillion. The bank’s ownership is concentrated in the Saif Al-Ghurair Investment Group (41.75 percent) and the Abdullah and Hamad Al-Ghurair Investment Company (31 percent).
What This Means for the Region
The experience here is not merely an isolated technical trial; it is a model for deploying generative AI in a sensitive supervisory function where the cost of error is high, and a 40 percent productivity gain reshapes compliance economics. For a banker in Riyadh, Cairo or Muscat, the message is clear: mature tools are available, and the advantage goes to those who embed them in the process rather than those who simply announce them.