'Best in Middle East' award for third time this year

KUWAIT: Gulf Bank is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the 'Enterprise Risk Technology Implementation of the Year in the Middle East' by The Asian Banker. This is Gulf Bank's third recognition for excellence in the Middle East region in 2016, having previously won 'Best Credit Card Product of the Year in the Middle East' and 'Best Internet and Mobile Security Technology Implementation of the Year in the Middle East' from The Asian Banker. Gulf Bank received the award at a ceremony following the 'Future of Finance Middle East and Africa Dialogue' at the Ritz Carlton DIFC Hotel in Dubai. The Asian Banker is one of Asia's leading consulting companies in financial services research, benchmarking and intelligence.

Commenting on this award Peter Roberts, General Manager for Information Technology at Gulf Bank, said: "Gulf Bank is proud to be the recipient of this prestigious award recognizing the Bank's efforts and continuous commitment to providing innovative solutions to real customers' problems.  We are proud that Gulf Bank was selected for this award from all the applicants across the Middle East and North Africa region. We are also extremely pleased that this is the third award the Bank has received for excellence in the Middle East region in 2016."

Roberts emphasized the Bank's ability in delivering robust projects and integrating its risk capabilities by saying: "We created a Transactional Banking Platform which was capable of solving real customer problems for our corporate clients by automating the end-to-end process of key customer transactions, including complex largely manual risk management components of the process. The requirements of the project were taken directly from feedback from both our consumers and corporate customers and have led to significant improvements in customer service and a dramatic reduction in operational risk."

All banks and non-bank financial institutions (including insurance companies, brokerages, credit companies and finance companies) with operations in Middle East and Africa were eligible for submission. The entrants for the Enterprise Risk Technology Implementation award were assessed based on detailed descriptions and documentations of how the strength of the institution's risk management core competencies was applied.

Prior to its selection, Gulf Bank was carefully assessed by a panel of industry experts and judges across a stringent set of criteria to determine the Bank's overall performance and services compared to other local banking competitors. The selection process began in August and finished in October, and involved a team of researchers working in tandem.  The initial selection is through a survey and desk research done by the research team at the Asian Banker.  The identified candidates are then subject to further scrutiny though interviews and their names are put into a poll that is distributed to The Asian Banker's 38,000 readers. After the results of the poll and the research have been compiled, a short-list of candidates is then submitted for review by the international board of advisors for a final evaluation and recommendation to determine which candidate should receive the award. The exemplary implementations are subsequently documented and published as research noted in the Risk and Regulation Working Group, the Asian Banker's repository of best practices in the industry.