Ahli United Bank received a double honour at the 2011 Euromoney Awards for Excellence at the special ceremony held in Dubai.
In addition to AUB being named “Best Bank in Bahrain 2011” for the sixth consecutive year, AUB’s Group CEO and Managing Director, Adel El-Labban, was announced as the 2011 recipient of the “Outstanding Contribution to Financial Services in the Middle East “award by Euromoney, one of the leading and most respected international financial publications.
Euromoney’s “Best Bank” awards single out banks that demonstrate leadership, innovation and momentum in the markets in which they excel, while its award for the “Outstanding Contribution to Financial Services in the Middle East ” aims at honouring banking leaders who made major contributions to advancing the financial services industry in the Middle East over the years.
The award ceremony gathered some of the region’s most senior bankers, government officials as well as representative of the international and regional media.
“Adel El-Labban has made a name for himself as one of the most effective chief executives of his generation. The leadership he provided at the helm of some of the region’s most successful banks whether in Cairo, London or Bahrain, was instrumental in consistently raising the bar for banking in the Middle East. While never losing sight of fundamentals, his vision and innovations were the driving force behind CIB’s transformation into Egypt’s leading private sector bank and in AUB’s first decade of unparalleled growth and achievements,” Euromoney Editor, Clive Horwood, said.
“My profound thanks to Euromoney for their very gratifying and unexpected award which I am delighted and honoured to accept on behalf of all my colleagues with whom I have been privileged to work over the past 33 years. Their dedication and professionalism has made this award possible and it is to them that the real credit is due,” El-Labban added.
“We all agree that the prosperity and future stakes of this region hinge on its ability to create sustainable economic opportunities for all, which can only be achieved through inclusion within and integration beyond borders. This is why we saw it both as our mandate and our challenge to be the financial enablers locally and the financial bridge builders regionally, and in the process help foster a resilient and vibrant regional banking industry which transcends the legacy domestic focus dominating banks in the Middle East, and which enables to efficiently service our client base which is rapidly evolving beyond the single state boundaries,” El-Labban, said.
The award for Outstanding Contribution to Financial Services in the Middle East is the only award given by Euromoney to an individual each year. Previous winners included Raymond Audi, Sulaiman Al Rajhi, Abdulaziz Al-Ghurair, Eisa Al-Eisa, Ibrahim Dabdoub and the Shoman Family.