Emirates NBD inaugurates its Large Corporate Unit

This step marks one of the most important integration milestones and reflects the steady progress of unifying businesses at the Group. The announcement came at a press conference held today at Emirates NBD Head Office in Dubai.

The LCU will manage the large corporate accounts at Emirates NBD through a highly-qualified team. Relationship Managers have been appointed to manage accounts of each company and understand their requirements so as to provide services and products tailored to their corporate needs.

H.E. Ahmed Al Tayer expressed his satisfaction over the rapid and positive development of the integration process and said: "The completion of one of the biggest mergers between two strong banks has started achieving its goals through providing better results to our customers and shareholders. Ambitious plans have been set to ensure the success of this transaction, and the establishment of this new unit is a result of the efforts of establishing the preferred financial partner for the corporate and institutional sector in the UAE and region."

Emirates NBD's integration process is progressing according to the set plan, and so far, several achievements that constitute added value for the Group's customers have been announced. One of them is providing the largest ATM network in the UAE, with more than 474 machines and more than 110 branches.

Mr. Abdul Wahid Al Fahim, General Manager, Wholesale Banking, Emirates NBD said: "The Unit's team has worked hard to achieve the unification of the large corporate accounts in the two merged banks, leading to successfully establishing this unit which will be dedicated to manage the large corporate accounts in the two banks. This will enhance the Group's capability to compete with international players and ensure the satisfaction of its customers through providing them with innovative banking solutions that meet the growth of their businesses."

Commenting about the strategy of the new Unit, Mr. Mahdi Kazim, General Manager of the LCU, Emirates NBD said "after integrating the large corporate accounts, we are currently consulting with our customers on unifying the procedures of granting credit facilities for all our large corporate clients to enable our customers to bank with us through one account."

Emirates NBD is the Middle East's largest banking Group in terms of assets that amounted, in the first quarter 2008, to more than Dhs253bn. The Group is quite active in providing banking services to both, corporate and retail customers, and is regarded as the preferred banking partner of companies and institutions in the UAE and GCC region.