DUBAI, March 9 (Reuters) - The pandemic will continue to affect profitability for banks in the United Arabia Emirates (UAE) in the early quarters of 2021, after a sharp drop in return on equity last year, consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) said on Tuesday.

Return on equity fell to 7.7% in 2020 from 13.3% the previous year, A&M said in a report on the UAE's top 10 banks.

"We possibly have not turned the corner," Asad Ahmed, head of Middle East financial services for A&M told a briefing, saying this goes for banks globally as well as in the UAE.

"In terms of the region and the UAE, 2021 will continue to be a year which does not produce stellar results, but hopefully next year onwards we will see the numbers turn around."

Growth in loans and advances during 2020 slowed sharply to 1.4% from 13.2% in 2019, the report said.

2021 is expected to be less volatile than the past year, but banks might see a deterioration in their asset quality after the completion of the central bank's stimulus scheme later this year, it said.

Total loan-loss provisions jumped 79% year-on-year to 28.1 billion dirhams ($7.65 billion) for the top 10 UAE banks last year, as a challenging economic environment and banks' exposure to several high-profile cases boosted impairments, A&M said.

UAE banks have been hurt by their exposure to hospital operator NMC Health, which disclosed more than $4 billion in hidden debt after short-seller Muddy Waters questioned its financial reporting.

The hospital operator filed for administration in London in April last year.

($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Saeed Azhar. Editing by Mark Potter)