Doha Bank adjudged as Best Bank 2008 in State of Qatar by Euromoney for sustainable performance

The accolade was conferred by the prestigious Euromoney Awards for Excellence in a glittering ceremony held at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai on 11th June 2008.

The ceremony was attended by elite gathering of government officials, academicians, regulators, dignitaries and senior bankers across the Middle East region and the globe.

The award conferred on Doha Bank is recognition of the trust and confidence by the global financial services community and an acknowledgement of Doha Bank's customer centric approach and progressive outlook committed in providing one-stop-financial service experience to its ever expanding global customer base.

The performance of Doha Bank over the last five years has been exemplary, sustaining the best performance ratios in the Middle East region year-after-year with Return on Equity at 32.6% and the Return on Asset at 3.6% as at 31 December 2007. Further, in the last five years the Shareholder Equity has grown more than four times to QR3.62bn as at 31 December 2007 and the annual net profit has grown more than seven times to QR926m for the year ended 31 December 2007. The total assets have crossed QR30bn, achieving a y-o-y growth of 39%, deposits registering y-o-y growth of 32% and annual net profit registering a y-o-y growth of 25%.

Doha Bank now has established a dominant position in Middle East banking landscape with 28 state-of-art branches, 4 Islamic branches, 11 e-branches, 11 pay offices, 2 mobile units in Doha, 1 mobile unit in Dubai with more than 100 ATMs. Geographically Doha Bank operations are spread across State of Qatar with full fledged branches in New York-USA, Dubai-UAE and another coming soon in Kuwait, representative offices in Istanbul-Turkey, Tokyo-Japan, Singapore, Shanghai-China and Bucharest-Romania, and an extremely strong network of correspondent banking relationship.

Doha Bank provides comprehensive range of financial service products and services basket, unparalleled in the Middle East region, by deploying consumer centric technology and innovative delivery channels. Doha Bank offers financial services to all the customer segments through its retail banking, wholesale banking, Doha Islamic, bacassurance and treasury & investments divisions. An area of high focus is the high net worth segment and the bank is continually providing new services to cater to this segment.

Further, Doha Bank also expanded its service network through establishing a 100% owned insurance company Doha Bank Assurance Company offering comprehensive general insurance solutions and through associate company Doha Brokerage & Financial Services for providing comprehensive brokerage and asset management solutions. These strategic initiatives are in line with Doha Bank's strategic vision to converge as One-stop Financial Service provider.

International rating agencies, Moody's, Standard & Poor, Capital Intelligence and Fitch Ratings, have assigned a stable outlook for Doha Bank owing to its consistently strong financial fundamentals, asset quality, and robust liquidity. Further, in the recent years Doha Bank has diversified and lengthened funding through strategic innovative liquidity management, also first of its kind in Middle Eastern region, through $1bn EMTN program in 2006, $350m syndicated loan in 2007 and rights issue of $301m in 2008 which were over subscribed at all the times.

H.E. Sheikh Fahad Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al Thani, Chairman Doha Bank, while expressing his happiness on the occasion, said, "We at Doha Bank are absolutely focused in our objective towards creating a strong, customer-centric and socially responsible financial service provider within the global market space".

H.E. Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al Thani, Managing Director Doha Bank, while expressing his happiness on the occasion as well, said, "Doha Bank is taking many strategic initiatives to provide the best value to our customers, our stakeholders and to our society at large. Our dedicated team of professionals has consistently set high standards in performance, innovation, security and quality, being the hallmarks of Doha Bank, in this highly competitive market. It will be our ongoing challenge to manage and sustain these strengths and Doha Bank is proactively enhancing these in the current year."

Mr. R. Seetharaman, Chief Executive Officer Doha Bank while expressing his happiness on receiving the award said, "It is the Doha Bank's Board's visionary and participative leadership philosophy, which has taken Doha Bank to newer heights. The Bank has been completely transformed into a dynamic entity with strong values and customer-centric approach. The Board has steered Doha Bank to become a market pioneer in introducing innovative products and services."

It is known that the Euromoney Awards for Excellence are only granted after a careful scrutiny of a number of sustainable financial and economic parameters that are important in judging the performance and productivity level for any organization.

Doha Bank has been applauded by renowned financial sector analysts for its pioneering and leadership role in taking Financial Services experience in Middle Eastern region to newer heights. Banker Middle East has adjudged Doha Bank as the - "Best Commercial Bank 2007" & "Best Bank in Middle East - 2006". In addition, Doha Bank has also bagged the Euromoney Award for Excellence 2005, Banker Middle East award as the "Best commercial Bank in Middle East - 2005" and The Banker Financial Times award as "Banker of Year for Qatar for 2003 and 2004.