Commercialbank announces new regional group organisation structure

Commercialbank through its alliances with National Bank of Oman and United Arab Bank now has extensive operations in three GCC countries, Qatar, UAE and Oman.

Commercialbank is the largest single shareholder in each bank with approximately 35% of NBO and 38% of UAB, in addition to having management agreements in place with both banks.

The Commercialbank Board of Directors have recognised the need to adopt an enhanced organisational structure to support their dynamic regional growth.

"In his capacity as Group Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Stevens' principal responsibilities now encompasses all three banks - Commercialbank, National Bank of Oman and United Arab Bank, and Orient 1, our regional credit cards business. Additionally he will also be directing further regional expansion as this develops,"

said Mr. Hussain Al Fardan, Managing Director of the Commercialbank Group.

"Commercialbank's objectives over the coming years are to build upon these existing alliances through the optimization of synergies, the implementation of industry best practice, and the introduction of shared services platforms across an increasingly unified structure. Each bank will continue to pursue selective and aggressive organic expansion in each of its home markets and also combine to pursue other regional risk participation opportunities as these arise", said Andy Stevens, Group Chief Executive Officer.

"By unlocking the true potential of these alliances, we aim to build a leading regional banking federation in the GCC. Aggregated, our Group Assets are today in excess of QR60bn, we have over 100 branches spread across Qatar, the whole UAE and Oman and employ approximately 3,000 staff," said Stevens.

In addition, Commercialbank Group will continue to seek new potential alliance partners in other countries and with specific product or service capability."We shall also continue to make acquisitions in our target markets where these are available and viable," asserted Stevens.

In Qatar the Bank has also announced that Michael Azmi Loe has been appointed as Commmercialbank CEO, responsible for all the Bank's operations in Qatar.

"Commercialbank is the biggest of the three partnerships and has been growing by over 50% a year for the last 7 years. And with a booming economy there is still massive room for further growth," said Stevens. "The new Commercialbank CEO will continue to work on the development of the bank's franchise in its home Qatari Market but will also play a key role in uniting our new federation and providing impetus towards the development of an integrated operations and support model for all three banks.