Profitability Analysis of conventional and Islamic Insurance Companies in United Arab Emirates

The aim of this paper is to measure the financial performance of six insurance companies operating in the UAE with the goal of comparing the performance between three Islamic and three conventional insurance companies during the financial crisis of 2008. The primary data source for the collection of financial data was the National bank of Abu Dhabi’s publication known as the Local Shares Directory. Performance on five types of indicators was assessed in order to test profitability levels for the years 2005 through to 2009. The general findings of the analysis show an industry wide, in-discriminant decline in the profit levels of insurance companies during the financial crisis followed by an uptick in performance being seen in the year 2009. However, a more thorough analysis showed that conventional insurance companies experienced greater returns than their Islamic counterparts did