The National Commercial Bank has won the Best Islamic Bank of the year at the Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) held in Oman recently, on the back of Oman's Islamic Economics forum which was held in Muscat. The award was received by Adnan Bin Hamad, Senior Vice President, Head of Islamic finance Group in NCB. On the occasion, Abdulrazak ElKhraijy, Senior Executive Vice President, and NCB's Head of Islamic Banking Development Group, said such an award, devised and presented by a highly specialized and credible party, objectively reflects the prominent place that NCB occupies in the Saudi banking industry. Abdulkareem Abu Alnasr, chief executive officer, NCB, said the Islamic products and solutions that NCB devised are today applied in many banks and financial institutions locally and around the world, which gave NCB a top position in terms of product diversification and innovativeness in the global Islamic banking industry. Professor Humayon Dar, CEO of Edbiz Consulting and chairman of the forum, said naming NCB as Best Islamic Bank in 2011 in the Global Finance awards comes as a recognition of its innovative approach and its ability to creatively offer a wide range of Islamic banking services. He commended NCB's management for its persistence and supportive approach towards its staff in overcoming the challenges of converting all of the bank's retail operations to Islamic banking. This successful model was followed in a number of other similar transformations around the world.
