Barwa Bank Group, Qatar’s fastest growing Shariah-compliant banking service provider, has been named as the “Best Bank” and “Best Premium Bank” globally, as well as “Best Domestic Commercial Bank” in Qatar at the Islamic Business & Finance Awards 2013.
The First Finance Company ( FFC ), a unit of the Barwa Bank Group, was recognised as the “Best SME Finance House in the Middle East” at the Islamic Business & Finance Awards.
The awards were established by CPI Financial in 2005 to recognise the best performing institutions in different regions, where Islamic finance is either developed or is rapidly expanding.
Shortlists in 40 corporate categories were compiled by an international panel of judges and offered to voters to determine the winners. The accolade of Best Bank was awarded to the institution achieving the highest average vote across the various banking categories. The Islamic Business & Finance Awards programme, running for its eighth year, is designed to highlight, encourage and reward the exceptional performance and growth of the international Islamic business and finance community. These Awards are the benchmark of excellence in the industry.
Steve Troop, CEO, Barwa Bank attended the Awards ceremony held on December 11 at Jumeirah Emirates Hotel in Dubai.
Troop said: “We are honoured to be acknowledged with these awards from CPI Finance and are delighted that our commitment to growth and to building an innovative and customer focused Shari’ah compliant bank has been recognised.”
Troop said he was pleased to receive the “Best Bank” award as Barwa Bank aims to challenge the widespread misconception that Islamic finance involves an implicit trade-off between Shari’ah compliance and sophistication and service excellence.
“We aim to deliver on both through providing innovative products and service standards that meet customer need and expectations. We may not be the largest, but we want to be the best and the most recommended,” he said.
Eslah Assem Awad, CEO, FFC , who received the award said: “We are delighted to receive this award and I congratulate the entire FFC team for their outstanding contribution to our success in positioning FFC as a leader not only in the Qatari financial sector, but across the Middle East.”
FFC offers a comprehensive range of products for SMEs. Its new SME finance product is an attractive offering with its easy instalment plan, convenient grace period, simple procedures and flexibility of down payment.
” FFC aims to encourage all people in Qatar to turn their creative thinking into reality, from empowering Qatari females to start their own businesses, to expatriates who would like to introduce a new innovative product or service to Qatar. We strive continuously to be the best in the finance market, and receiving both industry and customer recognition for our excellence in financial services is a testament to this” said Assem.
Source : The Peninsula
