Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the region, has announced that it was the preferred banking partner for 37 of the 100 top performing SME organisations in Dubai (Dubai SME 100).

This includes three of the top ten Dubai SME 100 companies - Mepco Gulf co, Enerplastics and Mani Foods Ind.

Emirates NBD’s Business Banking Division has also registered a 32 per cent increase in income since 2008, while its loan book size has grown by 20 per cent, according to a statement from the bank.

“Emirates NBD is honoured to be a strategic partner of Dubai SME 100, because we strongly believe that small and medium enterprises hold the key to future economic growth in the UAE,” said Vikas Thapar, head of Business Banking, Emirates NBD.

“The wide range of our SME-focused products and services, have enabled us to garner more than 30 per cent market share of SME business relationships in the UAE, and 37 per cent of the top SMEs in the country have close associations with the bank.”

A premier ranking of Dubai's 100 top-performing small and medium enterprises, Dubai SME 100 was launched in 2011 by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development (Dubai SME).

As a strategic partner of Dubai SME 100, Emirates NBD offers Dubai’s top SMEs exclusive benefits including competitive foreign exchange and telegraphic transfer (TT) rates, preferential rates on trade services, preferential rates for online transactions through smartBUSINESS, special rates on deposits and investments and the highest number of free or discounted charges on day to day transactions, said a statement. – TradeArabia News Service