Banker Middle East acknowledges leading GCC banks

Awards were presented in eight major categories including:

(1) Best Retail Bank (Individual country awards for Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE).
(2) Best Corporate Bank (Individual country awards for Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE).
(3) Award for Innovation in Islamic Finance (One region-wide award)
(4) Best e-banking services (One region-wide award)
(5) Best wealth management initiatives (One region-wide award)
(6) Best investment bank (One region-wide award)
(7) Credit card of the year (One region-wide award)
(8) Best use of IT for a multi-channel strategy (One region-wide award)

"As the voice of the Gulf's banking and financial services community, BME recognises its role and responsibilities in the development of the industry," said Dominic De Sousa, CEO of CPI. "As well as providing educational features within the magazine and hosting informative round table events, we thought it was the right time to recognise those institutions leading the industry forward. To date, foreign organisations have evaluated the region's banks as part of global reviews, but now it is time that experts in the region, specialising in Middle East banking, have their chance to make their views heard."

BME's Banking Awards 2004 focused on the GCC region; a region in which there exists a modicum of cross-border competition and reasonable market synergies that allow for fair comparison between institutions. Both local/regional and foreign financial institutions operating in the Gulf were eligible for nomination.

In order to begin the selection process with a realistic, credible and manageable number of candidates, BME gathered together an expert panel of nominating judges spanning ratings agencies, consultancies, card schemes, solution providers and banks. The panel included Humayun Shahryar, Executive Director, Abraaj Capital; Khuram Hussain, CEO, iHilal; Mohammed Belarj, SVP and GM, MasterCard; Anouar Hassoune, Ratings Analyst, Standard & Poor's; R. Seetharaman, AGM, Doha Bank; Nadeem Mujtaba, MD, Gulf Banking Consultants; Richard Shediac, Partner, Booz Allen Hamilton; Darren Stubbing, Ratings Analyst, Capital Intelligence; Brad Bourland, Chief Economist, Samba; Steve Freeman, COO, HSBC Bank Middle East; Martin Dolan, GM, Misys; Sankar Krishnan, VP Global Institutions, Citibank; Iqbal Khan, CEO, HSBC Amanah Finance; and Mark Chetwood, Director Banking Industry EMEA, IBM Financial Services.

These judges were asked to provide nominations in each of the awards categories. Their responses were collated, and then BME's editorial team derived a shortlist of three nominated banks for each award. The short-listed banks were then put to a public vote. This was conducted through the magazine's Web site: www.bankerme.com. In order to provide customer benchmark input, visitors to www.menafn.com, an on-line Middle East financial news aggregator, were also invited to join the voting, which closed at the end of January 2004.

"By introducing end user voting, BME is ensuring that its awards are transparent and credible," said William McSheehy, Editor, BME. "In short, while some organisations' awards are known to be given out based on political or financial criteria, the banks winning awards from BME will know that they have received recognition that they can really be proud of."

The Awards Ceremony, held at the Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai on the evening of Monday 16th February 2004 was attended by senior representatives from the nominated banks, along with other select bankers and third parties. As well as a public ceremony, the event provided an ideal opportunity for business networking.

The awards winners:
National Bank of Bahrain: Best Retail Bank - Bahrain
National Bank of Kuwait: Best Retail Bank - Kuwait
Bank Muscat: Best Retail Bank - Oman
Qatar National Bank: Best Retail Bank - Qatar
National Commercial Bank: Best Retail Bank - KSA
Emirates Bank International: Best Retail Bank - UAE
Arab Banking Corporation: Best Corporate Bank - Bahrain
National Bank of Kuwait: Best Corporate Bank - Kuwait
Bank Muscat: Best Corporate Bank - Oman
Qatar National Bank: Best Corporate Bank - Qatar
Samba: Best Corporate Bank - KSA
National Bank of Abu Dhabi: Best Corporate Bank - UAE
Dubai Islamic Bank: Innovation in Islamic Finance
Emirates Bank International: Best e-Banking Services
Gulf International Bank: Best Investment Bank
HSBC Bank Middle East: Best Wealth Management Initiatives
Emirates Citibank Card: Credit Card of the Year
Standard Chartered Bank: Best use of IT for a Multi-Channel Strategy