This paper examines the financial performance of Islamic and commercial banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The paper gives an empirical insights and comparisons between the performance of Islamic and conventional banking sectors. The sample of the study consists of 5 fully-fledged Islamic banks and 14 conventional banks working in the UAE under the period 2011-2014. The study uses descriptive analysis, correlation, independent sample t test and multiple regression analysis to assess the performance and to compare between both types of banks. The Return on Assets (ROA) is used as proxy for profitability for both types of banks while bank size (log A), liquidity, capital adequacy, financial risk and operating efficiency as proxies for financial performance for both types of banks. The results showed that there is no significant difference between Islamic banks and conventional banks in terms of profitability (ROA) while there is a significant difference between Islamic and conventional banks in terms of liquidity, operation efficiency, capital adequacy, and financial risk. Further, the results indicated that the Islamic banks have higher operating efficiency, bank size and more liquidity than their counterparts of UAE. However, conventional banks are found to have better capital adequacy ratio than Islamic banks. In terms of financial risk, Islamic banks are found to have higher five times than conventional banks which may reflect challenges in the area of risk management in Islamic banks. Keywords: Financial performance, Islamic banks, Conventional banks, ROA, UAE. JEL Classification: A10, E60, G21