KUWAIT: MEED, the internationally renowned publication, has named Boubyan Bank’s Vice-Chairman & Group Chief Executive Officer, Adel Abdul Wahab Al-Majed, as "MENA CEO of the Year”, in recognition of his exceptional leadership and significant contributions to the growth of the banking industry over the past years. This came as a part of its 2024 MENA excellence awards.
Al-Majed received the award in a special ceremony held by the institution in Dubai in the presence of Boubyan Bank’s CEO - Private, Consumer, and Digital Banking, Abdullah Al-Tuwaijri, Ahmed Al-Fahad, General Manager and Secretary to the Board of Boubyan Bank, and a group of elite bankers, economists, and leaders from various economic sectors to recognize the institutions that won the awards at the Middle East level.
Al-Majed is an example of leading Kuwaiti bankers, who succeeded over more than four decades in making a clear mark in the banking business, and who has had outstanding achievements that contributed to the growth and reinforcement of the banking industry ever since joining the National Bank of Kuwait wherein he came up through the ranks until he assumed the position of the Deputy CEO of the bank before joining Boubyan Bank in 2009 to embark upon a new journey marked with many successes.
MEED congratulated Adel Al-Majed on this well-deserved achievement owing to his prominent and key role in the successful journey of Boubyan Group, where he - along with his special team - led the transformation up to the success which made Boubyan a banking example to follow in Islamic banking in general, and financial and banking institutions in particular. They stated that the most unique thing about that prestigious award won by Al-Majed was being given for the first time ever to the most prominent and top visionary CEOs, with the ability to effect a significant change not only institution-wise but also across the MENA banking scene as a whole.
On his part, Al-Majed commented as he accepted the award: "I would like to thank everyone for this recognition. I am proud and grateful for receiving this award, which crowns the efforts of a journey that extends for over 40 years of ongoing and ceaseless work in facing and overcoming challenges, up to where we stand right now.”
He went on to add: "I would like to seize this opportunity to thank all my colleagues who accompanied me throughout this extended journey, and all those who contributed to this achievement, as well as many other achievements that placed Boubyan in the lead of the banking business. Any excellence or success is mainly attributed to the professional team and the sincere efforts exerted to achieve success.”
Factors of success and excellence
Al-Majed’s journey with Boubyan Bank since he moved from the National Bank of Kuwait back in 2009 is considered an example of domestic success stories. Back then, Boubyan Bank was at the bottom of the table of local banks in terms of financial and economic indicators. Following which, Boubyan Bank witnessed major transformations and cemented its leadership position among the top 3 banks in Kuwait, and it ranks even first in some key indicators and market shares.
Despite all the challenges faced by Al-Majed and his team, a new strategy was developed that focused on core banking, and bringing up a new spirit to the bank’s employees based on innovating in order to upgrade the bank’s services, in addition to the importance of introducing cutting-edge banking solutions that meet the demands of both retail and corporate customers in line with analytics, studies, and ideas, regardless of all potential challenges towards translation of all those into real solutions that meet customers’ needs.
Excellence in customer service
Ever since the first day of the bank’s transformation journey in 2009, Boubyan’s management has always been working to improve the quality of services and products to improve and enrich a banking experience that meets the needs of customers and becomes part of their lifestyle, which led the bank to be in the lead of customer service in Kuwait as it has been named 2023’s "Best Islamic Bank in Customer Service” for the 14th year in a row since 2010 by Service Hero, the consumer-driven customer satisfaction index, making the bank a leading franchise in the banking industry, by following a tailored path that reinforces customer satisfaction levels, leading to receiving a 96% customer-satisfaction score among all Islamic and conventional local banks.
Key financial indicators of growth
Under the leadership of Al-Majed and the executive team of the Group, Boubyan managed to have many repeated successes that pushed the bank’s figures to record levels, thus making the bank a unique example among banks in Kuwait and the region. In numbers and over the past 10 years alone, the bank’s assets grew from $7.1 billion (KD 2.2 billion) to $27.4 billion now (KD 8.4 billion). Moreover, over the past five years the operating profits grew from $270.0 million (KD 83.0 million) to $349.7 million (KD 107.5 million), while the bank’s share of Islamic financing grew from 8.55 percent to 11.67 percent, and its share of deposits grew from 8.13 percent to 11.30 percent.
Expansion regionally and internationally
Coinciding with its 20th anniversary, Boubyan has become a group now comprising three banks (Boubyan Bank, The Bank of London and the Middle East, and Nomo Bank "the Group’s digital arm”), in addition to another three companies, namely, Boubyan Takaful Insurance Company, Boubyan Capital Investment Company, and Boubyan National), to continue Boubyan’s strategy towards domestic and international expansion.
Furthermore, and as a part of its regional expansion, Boubyan established a subsidiary of BLME in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in addition to BLME’s headquarters in London and Dubai, and Boubyan now owns 71 percent of BLME’s shares. In line with the strategic approach aiming to reinforce the global presence of Boubyan Bank with focus on digital banking services, Nomo was established as a sustainable brand in Kuwait and the UK as the world’s first Islamic digital bank. Nomo succeeded in doing so as it serves as a platform for Sharia-compliant digital services and solutions, which is on track to penetrate GCC markets with steady steps towards further expansion.
Shaping the digital future
Boubyan Bank’s digital transformation strategy gained a significant momentum, being a real and living example for succeeding in being highly competitive regionally and internationally in digital services and in encouraging innovation and sustainable digital growth towards accelerating transformation and making financial transactions more convenient, thus enabling Boubyan to be in the forefront of the digital banking scene, globally, regionally, and domestically, evidenced by retaining the award for the World’s Best Islamic Digital Bank by Global Finance for 9 years in a row.
It can be safely said that owing to the proactive vision and well-studied plans of Boubyan Bank’s management, the bank managed to prove that digital transformation was the fulcrum of regional expansion to upgrade the digital infrastructure of the bank’s services and to reinforce its digital solutions’ portfolio to be in the lead of institutions that support investing in digital services, and to provide the banking sector with many digital banking services launched for the first time in Kuwait by Boubyan, such as contactless payment services, thus succeeding in offering revolutionary exceptional digital experience worldwide.
Prior awards to Al-Majed
Over the past years, Al-Majed received many recognitions and awards, chief among which:
• 2022 MENA Islamic Banker of the Year Award from MEED
• 2021 Outstanding Contribution to Islamic Finance Award from Global Finance in recognition of his efforts in this vital economic sector over the past years, especially since taking up the leadership of Boubyan Bank back in 2009.
• 2021 Arab Banker of the Year Award by the Union of Arab Banks, making him the first Kuwaiti banker ever to receive this highest recognition given by the Union of Arab Banks for excellent achievers in the Arab financial and banking business.
•The award is given for the first time ever as a special recognition to celebrate the prominent banker in the region
•A banking career extending for more than 40 years where he helped shape the future of the banking industry