ShareKUWAIT: In a new achievement underscoring its leadership and brand strength, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has won nine prestigious awards from Global Finance magazine. The accolades come in recognition of the bank’s remarkable strides in innovation, digital transformation, and providing the best banking solutions catering to customers’ needs and coping with the rapid technological advancement in the banking industry.
For the second consecutive year, Global Finance honored NBK’s achievements by naming it “Best in Innovation - Global Winner” for 2024, outdoing conventional and Islamic banks. The bank also bagged 2 awards on the Middle East level and 6 awards locally, proving once again its supremacy in innovation and digitization. The awards were announced at the annual awarding ceremony “The World’s Best Digital Banks 2024” held by Global Finance in London, and received by Mohamed Al-Othman, CEO - Consumer and Digital Banking Group, and Mohammad Al-Kharafi, COO - Head of Group Operations and Information Technology on behalf of NBK, in the presence of a number of prestigious economists and bankers from around the world.
Monopolizing locally, leading regionally
Regionally, NBK was named “Best in Innovation - Middle East”, and “Best Online Product Offerings – Middle East” Locally, NBK monopolized Global Finance awards, with 6 wins out of the 10 awards presented by the magazine to banks in Kuwait. In addition to “Best in Innovation – Kuwait” and “Best Online Product Offerings – Kuwait”, the awards included: “Best Bill Payment and Presentment – Kuwait”, “Best Mobile Banking App – Kuwait”, “Best in Lending – Kuwait”, and “Best Information Security and Fraud Management -Kuwait” won by “Weyay”, NBK’s subsidiary digital bank.
These awards are a testament to the efforts made by NBK employees throughout a whole year to deliver a range of digital banking initiatives, services and solutions, which distinguished NBK as a global leader in innovation and digitalization, outdoing major global financial institutions.
These accolades from Global Finance are also an incentive for NBK to move forward in providing more innovative banking services by investing in technology, leveraging AI, Big Data and process automation, capitalizing on NBK’s huge technological infrastructure and innovation-friendly work environment.
NBK is keen on enhancing customer banking experience to keep pace with their changing needs. In this context, the NBK Mobile Banking App serves as a user-friendly daily platform for different customers, encompassing a wide range of services and features that exemplify NBK’s understanding of customers’ needs and expectations. NBK has also worked on increasing payment solutions using cutting-edge technologies, in addition to introducing a variety of innovative products and cards catering to the needs of customers from different segments, ages, and lifestyles, which contributed to enriching their banking experience.
Large investments
NBK firmly believes that digital transformation is an ongoing journey that requires more research, development, and keeping up with the latest technology. To this end, the bank made large investments in developing its technological infrastructure to support its goals on this level, which contributed significantly to providing market-leading products and services, and offering customers a banking experience that is the best locally and among the best regionally and globally. NBK has a long record of achievements and international awards that prove its excellence in the digital transformation. This reflects the bank’s belief in the pivotal role played by the workforce in digital transformation and fostering continuous innovation.
NBK continues to strengthen its presence in key regional markets by offering digital banking services that cater to the needs of customers regardless of their geographical location, further solidifying its position as a highly trusted brand. Meanwhile, NBK continues to collectively enjoy one of the highest credit ratings among most major banks of the Middle East from the top three international credit rating agencies: Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s.
The bank’s ratings are supported by its strong capitalization, prudent lending policies, disciplined approach to risk management, as well as its highly experienced and very stable management team. The bank also stands out with broad global geographical footprint, with branches and subsidiaries covering key regional and global financial and business capitals in China, Geneva, London, Paris, New York and Singapore, in addition to its regional presence in Lebanon, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE.
Global Finance, founded in 1987 and headquartered in New York, is one of the most reputable magazines specialized in finance and economics. It has a circulation of 50,000 readers in 193 countries, including senior corporate and financial officers responsible for making investment and strategic decisions at multinational companies and financial institutions.
The magazine conducts various surveys annually about innovation and profitability for banks and financial institutions all over the world, based on which it selects top performers on the regional and international levels.
List of awards won:
• Best in Innovation- Global Winner
• Best in Innovation - Kuwait
• Best in Innovation - Middle East
• Best Online Product Offerings – Kuwait
• Best Online Product Offerings – Middle East
• Best Bill Payment and Presentment – Kuwait
• Best Mobile Banking App - Kuwait
• Best in Lending – Kuwait
• Best Information Security and Fraud Management - Kuwait (Weyay)
