LONDON — Two Saudi Arabian financial institutions — Al-Rajhi Bank, one of the largest in the Kingdom and the Middle East, and Bank AlJazira achieved recognition at the annual Euromoney Islamic Finance Awards 2008, which was held in London earlier this month.
Al-Rajhi Bank won the “Best Islamic Bank in the Middle East Award” and Bank AlJazira’s Takaful Ta’awuni won the “Best Takaful Provider Award.” The citation for Al-Rajhi Bank said: “As a retail operation, Al-Rajhi Bank is already one of the leading Islamic banks. It is the world’s largest Islamic lender and had assets worth $33 billion at the end of September 2007. Now though, it is adding investment and corporate banking to its armory and is becoming a force to be reckoned with across all products. The decision to develop a wholesale banking business has not been taken lightly: It has taken Al-Rajhi Bank almost 50 years to change its model.”
Al-Rajhi Bank is certainly adopting a much more global approach in contrast to its highly parochial strategy of yesteryear. Last year, it launched its Malaysian subsidiary Al-Rajhi Bank Malaysia, which has a target of setting up 50 branches over the next two years.
This is the second global recognition, which Al-Rajhi Bank has received in the last two months. In December 2007, Abdullah Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, chief executive officer of Al-Rajhi Bank, won the “Islamic Banker Award for 2007” at the 14th MEGA Global Islamic Finance Conference held in Manama in Bahrain.
The prize committee said that Abdullah Al-Rajhi won the award for leading a large-scale institution, which has made a huge contribution in the Islamic finance field, both in the Kingdom and abroad. Samir Abdi, head of Islamic Financial Services at Ernst & Young, the global auditing and consultancy firm who administers the awards, said that “this prize is a culmination of exceptional efforts made by a unique person.”
Bank AlJazira’s Ta’awuni won the “Best Takaful Provider Award” which was received by the assistant general manager and head of Takaful Ta’awuni, Dawood Taylor. The citation for Bank AlJazira Takaful Ta’awuni stressed that “the tide is changing in the global Takaful market. In 2007 the UK global leader in insurance, Prudential PLC took a definitive step into the GCC Takaful market with Bank AlJazira.”
A third award, “Best Project Finance Deal” went to the ACWA Power Projects in Saudi Arabia. The citation simply said that” as the Saudi Arabian project finance pipeline grows to almost $500 billion, there is new momentum behind the Shariah-compliant project finance world.”
Other winners with Saudi connections include HSBC Amanah, the global Islamic financial services arm of the HSBC Group, which was named “Best International Islamic bank” and “Best Fund Manager.”
