Euromoney Middle East Awards for Excellence winners were announced in a ceremony in Dubai earlier this week, where Bank Pasargad Iran was named as the top Iranian bank for 2016.
“The [Euromoney] institute has studied Iran’s banking market and has named Pasargad as the top Iranian bank for the second successive year,” said Khosro Rafiei, head of BPI public relations office, as quoted by the bank’s website on Sunday.
Last year Euromoney said the BPI was the most professionally run bank of decent scale in Iran.
Euromoney’s award decisions are made by a committee of senior journalists, chaired by Euromoney editor, following the receipt of detailed submissions from market participants and extensive year-round research into the banking and capital markets in the region by the institute’s editors, journalists and research team.
“Competition for our Middle East awards this year was the strongest it has ever been, and arguably tougher than in most other global regions covered by the Euromoney Awards for Excellence,” said the editor of Euromoney, Clive Horwood, when presenting the awards.
Due to the changes in the nature of the global banking industry this year, Euromoney had made fundamental changes to the categories in the Awards for Excellence.
“Changes aim to reflect moving away from awards based on individual product categories, to focus on banks/investment banks that can demonstrate an ability to deliver the different parts of their firms to meet clients’ needs and adapt to market and regulatory conditions, and to consider candidates for these awards that might not be global in scale, but are truly world class in the way they are run and in the services they deliver to clients,” Euromoney said in a press release.
Euromoney’s awards cover more than 20 global product categories, best-in-class awards in all regions and the best banks in close to 100 countries around the world.
Emirates NBD won the region’s best bank award and was named the best digital bank in Middle East; HSBC retained the best investment bank crown.
New regional winners highlighted growing breadth and depth in Middle East finance.
Other local banks that won regional awards this year included: NBAD for the Middle East’s best bank for markets; ADCB as the region’s best bank for transaction services; Lebanon’s Audi Private Bank, the Middle East’s best bank for wealth management; Egypt’s AlexBank, best bank for SMEs; Arab African International Bank, the best bank for corporate social responsibility; and Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, for the region’s best bank transformation.
