Arab Bank wins Euromoney Best Bank Award

The award was presented to the bank during a special ceremony held in Dubai, attended by Executive Vice President and Director of the Chairman/CEO Office Ms. Dina Shoman and top Arab Bank executives as well as representatives of the key financial institutions, with intensive media coverage.

Euromoney Awards for Excellence are given for high-quality and innovative services and products across all areas of commercial and investment banking.

Commenting on the achievement, Ms. Shoman said that such awards and the high rankings Arab Bank receives from international rating agencies reflect the Bank's successful plans and strategies and encourage it to always build on the good reputation it has gained as a bank of excellent performance, high level services and a dedicated and persevering team that is always aspiring to take the Bank to the next level.

She said the excellent performance of the Bank is underlined by the various awards it has harvested, which reflect its deep understanding of developments in the banking sector and its ability to keep up with these changes and to stand up to the challenges and the tough competition in the market. The outcome is an advanced status at the local and regional level, the senior executive said.

Shoman noted that Arab Bank, whose branch network spans over 29 countries in five continents, works constantly on consolidating its regional and international presence to reach out to a wider customers' base, underlining in this context the recent acquisition deal under which Arab Bank now controls 19% of the Libyan Wahda Bank.

She also indicated that the Bank has recently launched further banking services that meet its changing customers' needs, along with launching new funds through its investment arms such as AB Capital and AB Invest. One of these, AB Asia Dynamic Bank Fund, has won the prestigious Lipper's Best Fund Award.

Arab Bank Group posted in the first quarter of 2008 record pre-tax profits that stood at $295m, with assets growing to $40.5 and shareholders' equity to $7.1bn.

The Euromoney award joins a long list of other such recognitions and high ratings Arab Bank has won. It has been recently selected by Global Finance magazine as the Best Bank in Jordan and Yemen and the Best Financing bank in the Middle East in 2008.