Takaful in the UAE (2026): Nine Operators, One Honest Map

Start with the honest number: nine. That is how many takaful operators are actually open for business in the UAE as of mid-2026, out of the ten takaful licences on the Central Bank of the UAE register. The tenth, YAS Takaful, holds licence 084 but was barred from writing new business in August 2025. A market that once licensed more than 60 insurers for a population of 10 million has spent a decade consolidating, and takaful, with the thinnest margins in the softest lines, consolidated hardest.

The nine active names, with their CBUAE takaful licence numbers: Sukoon Takaful (006), Salama (017), Aman (070), Abu Dhabi National Takaful (071), Watania Takaful Family (078), Methaq Takaful (082), Watania Takaful General (085), Takaful Emarat (086) and Orient Takaful (092). One name people often assume is takaful is not: Hayah Insurance, the former AXA Green Crescent, sits on the register as a conventional insurer and does not market Shariah-compliant products.

How the field shrank

The consolidation took three forms, and knowing which path each survivor walked tells you a lot about what you are buying.

Mergers built the Watania group. Dar Al Takaful, founded in Dubai in 2008, acquired Noor Takaful General and Noor Takaful Family in 2020, then merged with National Takaful Company - Watania in July 2022. The listed holding renamed itself Watania International Holding in March 2023, gave up its own insurance licence, and now sits purely as a shareholder over two licensed subsidiaries. Separately, Sukoon Insurance, the former Oman Insurance Company and one of the UAE's largest insurers, acquired ASCANA (the heritage Dubai operator that converted from conventional insurance to takaful in 2014-2015) in a deal finalized in May 2023 and rebranded it Sukoon Takaful. And Orient Insurance, the Al-Futtaim group insurer, bought out its bank partners in Orient UNB Takaful after Union National Bank disappeared into ADCB, reaching 95.78% ownership and renaming the company Orient Takaful in May 2022.

Regulatory rescues saved two others. Takaful Emarat failed the AED 100 million minimum capital requirement in 2022, with auditors flagging going-concern uncertainty; shareholders wrote off AED 132.43 million of losses and injected AED 185 million through a rights issue, and the Dubai Financial Market restored the shares to its first category on 2 April 2025. Methaq had its entire board dissolved by CBUAE directive on 31 March 2023 over a solvency deficit, spent two years under a regulator-appointed committee, and got a new board plus a rights issue in spring 2025. Salama, the 1979 pioneer, disclosed its own solvency non-compliance during 2025, executed a capital reduction and a mandatory convertible sukuk of up to AED 155 million, and announced the restructuring complete in April 2026.

One operator is trying to leave. Aman's shareholders resolved in February 2023 to exit insurance and become an investment company. Both portfolio sale agreements collapsed in 2024, one of them now in arbitration, and Aman keeps selling policies online while its endgame stays open.

The tiers that matter to a buyer

• The strength tier: Abu Dhabi National Takaful (A.M. Best A- for ten consecutive years, Fitch A- for four, 500,000+ customers, AED 1 billion revenue milestone announced April 2026) and Sukoon Takaful (backed by one of the UAE's largest insurers, with the market's best per-product Sharia certificate disclosure).
• The heritage tier: Salama (the world's oldest takaful operators cohort, incorporated 1979, the broadest direct retail shelf, now past its solvency episode) and the Watania twins (the largest merged book, which paid over AED 200 million of April 2024 flood claims while the group stayed profitable).
• The recovery tier: Takaful Emarat (recapitalized, FY2025 revenue up 45% to AED 610.9 million) and Methaq (one year past a two-year regulator administration, still proving itself).
• The special situations: Orient Takaful (excellent parent, near-zero consumer disclosure, corporate website down during our crawl) and Aman (fee-transparent, digitally slick, strategically exiting).

Our Halal Money Index grades reflect these tiers: Salama scores an A on the strength of its named scholars and published plan minimums, Abu Dhabi National Takaful an A- on its ratings record, while Orient Takaful sits at B- because almost nothing about it is consumer-verifiable.

Shariah governance: the disclosure gap is the quality signal

Every licensed operator must maintain an Internal Shari'ah Supervision Committee under the CBUAE's Higher Shari'ah Authority framework. The regulation mandates the committee's existence, not the publication of its membership, and disclosure practice varies enormously. Salama, Abu Dhabi National Takaful, Takaful Emarat, Methaq and Sukoon Takaful all publish named rosters. Watania (both entities), Orient and Aman invoke committees without naming the current scholars publicly. The same small circle recurs across operators: Dr. Abdulnaser Almannaee appears at Salama, Takaful Emarat and Methaq; Dr. Azzeddine Benzeghiba at Takaful Emarat and Methaq; Dr. Moosa Khoory at Takaful Emarat and Sukoon. That concentration is a structural feature of the UAE market, not a red flag in itself.

Four takeaways before you buy

• Licensing is necessary but not sufficient. YAS Takaful remains on the register while suspended, and Methaq was licensed throughout its administration. Check current status, not just registration.
• The wakala fee is the buried number that matters. The CBUAE caps operator remuneration and requires contract-level disclosure. The one operator that publishes its rate in financial statements, Aman at 33% of gross contributions net of fronting, shows how much of your contribution can lawfully go to the operator before a single claim is paid.
• Surplus distribution is asserted by every operator's model documents, but no UAE operator we crawled publishes a participant distribution history. Ask for it in writing before treating surplus as real money.
• The April 2024 floods were the sector's live stress test. The Watania group's AED 200 million-plus payout while remaining profitable is the strongest single piece of claims evidence in the market.

If you are starting from zero on the concept itself, read our explainer on how takaful actually works and the takaful vs conventional insurance comparison. For line-by-line shopping, we compare every operator's motor, health and family takaful offers separately.

All facts verified against the CBUAE insurance register (June 2026 edition), operator websites and exchange filings as of 5 August 2026.