ADCB, Bank Muscat win ‘Corporate Governance’ awards

HAWKAMAH, Institute for Corporate Governance, named Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and Bank Muscat as the winners of its prestigious regional Hawkamah Bank Corporate Governance Award during Banker Middle East’s Industry Awards held at the Jumeira Emirates Tower Hotel.

In its fifth year, the Hawkamah Bank Corporate governance Award recognizes corporate governance leadership of regional banks. Hawkamah received applications from banks in 9 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, reinforcing the notion that implementing good corporate governance practices is on top of the region’s banks’ agenda.

"We are delighted with the scope of country representation in this year’s award, and we hope that the qualitative and quantitative feedback that we provided to all participating banks will be useful to take the region’s bank corporate governance practices to their next natural, and strengthened, phase. Over the past few years, corporate governance regulations and guidelines have been introduced in most of the countries in the region, and we have seen in this year’s applications how banks are facing the implementation challenge," said Dr. Nasser Saidi, Executive Director, Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance.

"We congratulate ADCB and Bank Muscat for their corporate governance leadership. However we also want to mention Al Baraka, BBK and National Bank of Oman the other three shortlisted banks for a very competitive selection process," he added.

The jury agrees that the five shortlisted banks exhibited significantly higher levels of corporate governance awareness than in previous years. – SG