DOHA: Qatar’s leading Islamic financial institution Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has been awarded the title of “Islamic Bank of the Year, Qatar 2013” by The Banker magazine. The award is yet another accolade given to the bank, based on performance and achievements the year prior to March 2013.
This is the first year that The Banker magazine, a leading monthly title of the Financial Times Group, have decided to hold an Islamic Awards and is the only such award made in the country by the magazine. The banker’s selection process is based on the bank which has made the most progress over the 12 months.
According to The Banker, banks were judged on their ability to deliver shareholder returns, the strategies used to gain proven market advantage, as well as on the launch of competitive products. The aim of the awards programme is simple – to reward and promote industry wide excellence in the global Islamic banking community.
The award is being announced in the June issue of the magazine and the trophy will be presented at the ‘FT Events - Islamic Financial Intelligence Summit’ to be held in Kuala Lumpur in November.
Bassel Gamal (pictured), QIB’s Group CEO commented: “We are happy that we have collected the first ever Islamic award The Banker has allocated in Qatar. We believe that the recognition of being named ‘Islamic Bank of the Year 2013’ in Qatar is testament to the collective efforts of all our staff, our clients’ trust, a sound business model and the prudent risk approach of the bank.”
“QIB has made a number of important achievements. We successfully issued a $750m Sukuk at par; and the bank saw a growth in its assets of 25.3 percent over the highlighted 12 months. We took various strategic initiatives to develop a competitive business model, able to withstand competitive pressures in order to grow our business locally and internationally. QIB also introduced a series of new innovative Shariah-compliant products both for the wholesale and retail markets to strengthen our relationship with all our existing clients..”
South Sudan keeps pumping oil to Sudan
JUBA: South Sudan continues to pump oil to Sudan despite a threat from its neighbour to stop cross-border flows in a row over alleged support for rebels, its oil minister said yesterday.
The landlocked African country, which has to use Sudan’s export facilities, has piped around 7 million barrels of crude to its neighbour since resuming production in April, Stephen Dhieu Dau told reporters.
“This is increasing every day. This is not the final figure because producing is still on, we have not received any official communication from the government of Sudan so we are still producing,” he said in the capital Juba.
The Peninsula/Reuters
