First Abu Dhabi Bank recognised for meeting transactional and borrowing needs of SME customers as it wins Best SME Bank in United Arab Emirates at The Asian Banker Middle East and Africa Risk Management and Transaction Awards 2019

• Offering diverse products and services designed to meet the needs of SME customers in daily transaction and borrowing
• Introducing new financial facilities to cater to the growing needs of the SMEs in UAE
• This resulted in improving the bank’s SME business driven by the expansion of its SME asset book

Dubai, 7 November 2019— First Abu Dhabi Bank received the award for the Best SME Bank in United Arab Emirates at The Asian Banker Middle East and Africa Risk Management and Transaction Awards 2019. The awards ceremony was held in conjunction with the International Finance Summit at Conrad Dubai.

Standing from left: Nick Dove, International Resource Director; Rohit Bahal, Head of Liabilities and Business Banking Sales; Sahil Ahuja, Head of Product, Portfolio & Value Proposition; Vikas Thapar, Head of Business Banking, FAB; Mobasher Zein Kazmi, Head of Research, The Asian Banker

Offering diverse products and services designed to meet the needs of SME customers in daily transaction and borrowing

First Abu Dhabi Bank introduced a range of products and services designed to meet the requirements of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers. These products provide a variety of selection from transactional day-to-day business banking to borrowing. The bank is determined to understand the needs of small businesses, the pressures of a new business and the support needed for these to grow. Therefore, it provides designed products suitable to the customers’ needs. First Abu Dhabi Bank’s range of business accounts helps make the right decisions at the right time with each account variant devised to give the flexibility needed by SMEs in today’s dynamic business environment. The bank’s multicurrency accounts, preferred pricing rates, digital online corporate channel and special forex rates all provide the freedom to SMEs to have complete control of their accounts.

Introducing new financial facilities to cater to the growing needs of the SMEs in UAE

The bank introduced new propositions to cater to the growing needs of the SMEs in United Arab Emirates. It is a pioneer in fronting the SME growth loan initiative, undertaken by the government to spur lending to SMEs at affordable rates. The bank launched an exclusive world business debit card for SMEs. The card comes with unmatched benefits like the Mastercard contactless Tap and Go technology. It also provides the convenience of payment without cash and has the advanced chip and PIN feature that makes all transactions secure anywhere in the world.

This resulted in improving the bank’s SME business driven by the expansion of its SME asset book

With the launch of these propositions, First Abu Dhabi Bank achieved a 141% growth of its overall asset book. In addition, the bank migrated over 50% of trade and 15% of Forex transactions to digital channels. The bank’s business improvement is driven by its customer-centric strategy and determination to provide the best solution to its SME customers.

The Middle East and Africa Risk Management and Transaction Awards Programme is designed to identify emerging best practices and outstanding achievements of the best-run risk management teams and evaluate their  achievements in cash management, payments, and trade finance business. Taking on an audit-based approach from 2018, the recipients of these awards were determined through a combination of surveys, interviews and field research by The Asian Banker’s research staff.

 To know more about the programme, visit http://www.asianbankerawards.com/Middle-East-and-Africa-Awards/awards.php.

To view the Middle East and Africa photo gallery, visit https://business.facebook.com/pg/TheAsianBanker/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10157709300199804

About The Asian Banker

The Asian Banker is the region’s most authoritative provider of strategic business intelligence to the financial services community. The Singapore-based company has offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Dubai, as well as representatives in London, New York, and San Francisco. It has a business model that revolves around three core business lines: publications, research services and forums. The company’s website is www.theasianbanker.com.

For more information, please contact:

 Alfred Labiccasi

Marketing Manager

The Asian Banker

Tel: +44 1823 711134

alabiccasi@theasianbanker.com