- The Banker Middle East Industry Awards, the most prestigious awards ceremony in the financial calendar for the region, is now open for nominations and submissions.
- The awards continue to set new benchmarks for performance and excellence, through a renewed methodology and a revised list of regional categories.
- Under the new process, an esteemed panel of experts from the financial industry will evaluate the nominees based on merit, achievement and performance.
Dubai, UAE, 22 August 2019:
Now in its 20th year, the longest-running GCC-based banking publication, Banker Middle East (BME), has opened nominations for its Industry Awards ceremony. Regarded as the region’s most prestigious event in the banking and finance calendar, The Banker Middle East Industry Awards honour financial institutions and service providers that pioneer innovative solutions for the market.
The Awards give due recognition to the winning relationships nominees have built through their financial solutions with customers, shareholders and the market itself. It also rewards institutions in the financial sector that are able to keep up with the changing economic landscape.
“We designed the Banker Middle East Industry Awards to reward excellence in the banking community. The Awards will return to being regional as there is so much more kudos and prestige from being ‘Best in the Middle East’. Competition is healthy and the hunger for the awards has always been strong. Once again, we listened and have chosen to make some changes to make the event a more transparent and enjoyable evening,” said Nigel Rodrigues, the Founder and CEO of CPI Financial—the publisher of Banker Middle East.
Open to all banks, financial institutions and industry service providers in the Middle East, the Awards encourage organisations to have their initiatives and innovations feted for shaping the financial landscape in the region.
This year, Banker Middle East will conduct a more meticulous and thorough process in determining the winners. The new methodology provides transparency and impartiality in shortlisting potential winners and subsequently, final successful institutions and individuals for each category.
Under the new process, the nominees will be evaluated by an esteemed panel of judges which comprise of prominent industry experts from rating agencies, accountancy firms and auditors in the region. They will produce a shortlist of the final nominees based on criteria.
There are 32 categories for The BME Industry Awards this year—all of which are regional—and they include, Best Bank in the Middle East, Banker of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Fastest Growing Bank, Best Retail Bank, Best Islamic Bank, Best Corporate Bank, Best SME Bank, Best Commercial Bank and Best User-Experience Innovator, amongst others.
The awards process is divided into two stages. The first stage is where institutions and individuals nominate themselves for as many categories as they deem relevant. Participants must send their nominations to [email protected] by the set deadline of the 8th September 2019.
The second stage is where nominees submit their entries through an online submission form with relevant supporting documents by the 3rd October 2019. These entries will be subjected for evaluation by the judging panel who will subsequently produce a shortlist of potential winners. The shortlist will be announced on or after the 17th October 2019.
The winner for each category will then be revealed during the Awards ceremony, which takes place on the 26th November 2019 at The Ritz-Carlton, DIFC.
Expressing his excitement about the 20th anniversary of Banker Middle East, Rodrigues said that, “the publication has been an integral part of the region’s banking and finance industry for the last two decades and I look forward to the next 20 years, which I am sure will bring significant changes to the banking and financial community.”
He further added, “We invested a great deal of time and money in research to ensure that we are always ‘ahead of the curve’, providing clients with the resource to make informed decisions on their business going forward. I’ve always seen Banker Middle East as the ‘authoritative voice’ for banking and finance in the region and I am proud that we play an integral part as both a conduit and platform for institutions to discuss developing trends and the current issues being faced by the banking and finance community. We will continue to debate the critical issues facing our industry in the hope that they will inspire further debate and will result in positive changes.”
Banker Middle East has continuously supported the industry as a valued information partner through its thought-leading features and analyses that are central for the advancement of the financial sector in the region.