National Bank of Dubai (NBD) has been awarded the Asian Banker Award for Best Retail Bank in the UAE for 2007.

The award recognises NBD as an outstanding player in the retail financial services industry.

Suvo Sarkar, group head-retail banking, received the award on behalf of the National Bank of Dubai in Shanghai.

NDB was selected by an international panel consisting of prominent figures in the world of Retail Banking.

Winners were selected on the basis of a scorecard of 10 categories used to rank banks and their retail banking units.

The bank which gets the highest score is chosen as the best overall bank.

Among the criteria used are retail banking performance, long term prospects of the bank, retail sales figures of the bank, how well the retail bank is managed and the quality of staff training.  .

Now in its sixth year, The Asian Banker Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme continues to be the most developed research-based programme in rating the best retail institutions, products and processes in the region.

The Asian Banker Excellence award is considered the benchmark to compare the services of retail banks across the region.

“We are delighted to receive this esteemed award from Asian Banker,” said Suvo Sarkar.

“This international recognition is a testament to the tremendous success we have had over the last few years in developing and delivering a full suite of retail products and services.

“NBD is today a leading provider of retail financial services in the UAE, and is committed to providing our customers with innovative value-added products and the highest levels of customer service.”

The award is part of the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Convention 2007 which is the foremost gathering of Retail Banking heads and is designed to track the real operational issues driving the rapidly expanding banking sector today. 

The conference was held on June 7 and 8 in the city of Shanghai, China.

The award for Best Retail Bank in the UAE was presented to NBD at a ceremony held on June 8.

The Asian Banker Awards cover three main categories: The Best Retail Banks by country; Excellence in Products and Processes Awards and The Retail Banker of the Year Award.
 
NBD’s 2006 annual results saw the bank report considerable growth in retail banking where revenues grew by 78 per cent.

The bank has implemented a number of retail products, segments, channels and service initiatives in recent years to support its business growth.

New product launches include the NBD-Dnata credit card, the first joint venture between a bank and a travel company in the region, as well as NBDirect, the first payroll card in the country.

In addition to the successful NBD Home Loans product, the bank recently launched NBD Office Loans for commercial property, and has emerged today as a leading player in mortgages.

The bank’s range of investment and Bancassurance products was recently supplemented with the introduction of the NBD-HDFC Bank NRI services for the Indian expatriate community.

NBD also has a full range of services for high net worth customers through Suhail, its premier banking service, and for Small and Medium Enterprises customers through its business banking range of products and services.

The bank has also rapidly expanded its branch and ATM network to one of the largest in the country.

In addition, a new 24/7 state-of-the-art call centre supported by CRM technology has recently been launched.

National Bank of Dubai was set up in 1963, and is the oldest locally incorporated bank in the country. TradeArabia News Service