RIYADH: The Saudi British Bank (SABB) was awarded the Kingdom’s most sought-after banking industry title — The Bank of the Year, Saudi Arabia, 2009.
The award was recently presented to SABB’s Managing Director Richard Groves at a ceremony in London by Stephen Timewell, editor of The Banker, the highly prestigious international publication which selected SABB for the accolade, for delivering the best overall performance of any bank in Saudi Arabia during the past year. “We are delighted with this recognition of SABB’s progress toward being the bank of choice in Saudi Arabia. It is a great honor to be the recipient of the Bank of the Year Award 2009 in an increasingly competitive market,” Groves said, adding that the bank continues to invest in innovation, network expansion and technology.
SABB’s notable achievements include developing the bank’s increasingly important Islamic finance business. This included the introduction of innovative Islamic overdraft and margin trading products, and creating and investing in a group of associate companies covering investment banking, insurance and securities services. SABB, together with these associates, now offers a full range of financial services to its local and international customers, in addition to leveraging the global relationship with HSBC which has led, for example, to a further marked increase in 2009 in dealings with Chinese and other Far Eastern companies with interests in Saudi Arabia.