The winners of the ‘2nd Middle East Banking & Finance Awards’ were honored at a glittering ceremony today at the Al Bustan Rotana, Dubai, UAE. Organized by the Middle East Excellence Awards Institute, the awards aimed to recognize business, technology and service excellence amongst the region’s banking and financial service industry. The awards were sponsored by the National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia and Amlak Finance.
The awards for 2005 were based on the theme of e-Banking. They honored banks that have achieved exemplary levels of business excellence based on the latest global technology developments and are considered as role models for development in the Middle East. The winner’s had shown a proven track record of enabling customers by offering them electronic services faster, at a lower cost and with higher security.
The winners were honored for their achievement in the following categories:
Middle East E-Banking Country Award
The criteria for selecting banks was their breadth of product offerings, success in migrating existing customers to the web and acquiring and retaining new customers and use of the internet to improve business processes, cut costs and deliver other benefits.
Award winners for different countries were:
• Oman - Bank Muscat
Received by: Mr. Saad Mousa - Deputy General Manager - Retail Banking
• UAE - National Bank of Abu Dhabi
Mr. Abdulla Ghobash - Regional Manager, Northern Emirates
• Kuwait - National Bank of Kuwait
• KSA
1. National Commercial Bank, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Received by: Mr. Taha Al Kuwaiz, Deputy General Manager
2. Riyad Bank
Received by: Mr. Abdul Karim Al Farak, General Manager, Information Technology
• Qatar - Qatar National Bank
Received by: Mr. Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari – General Manager Operations & Technology
Credit Card of the Year
This award was presented to the credit card which offers the most customer-friendly services in the Middle East region. The selected credit card, apart from being profitable, was found by customers to be a useful tool for their managing personal finances with use of technology, ATM and retailer networks, online bills and payment facility, tele-banking etc.
The winner was Visa International and the award was collected by Mr. Shankar Ram, Marketing Manager for Visa International, Middle East, Visa International.
Speaking about the awards, Ali Al Kamali, Director of the Middle East Excellence Awards Institute said, “E-Banking offers a new dimension for banks to reach greater heights in customer service, banking services and convenience to the customer and employees. The awards recognize the best banks among Middle East countries that provide e-Banking services to successfully solve customer needs electronically. The winners of the awards tonight are banks that have setup, used e-Banking tools, and encouraged the enthusiasm of regional customers for the use of e-banking solutions.”
Senior banking and finance executives, C-level officers, government officials, ambassadors, diplomats and other dignitaries from the region and abroad attended the awards ceremony.
