Ahli United Bank (AUB) group chief executive officer and managing director Adel A El Labban was honoured by his peers when he received a lifetime achievement award at the Banker Middle East Industry Awards.

Ernst & Young (Bahrain) was named as the best accountants and auditors in the region and Bahrain-based Seera Investment Bank was named the fastest growing bank in the Kingdom.

Qatar National Bank was named Best Bank in the Middle East while Mashreq Bank chief executive officer Abdul Aziz Abdulla Al Ghurair was recognised for his outstanding contribution to the industry.

More than 400 regional and global industry leaders attended the awards ceremony in Dubai.

CPI Financial, which runs the event, said it had introduced new rigour and greater transparency into the awards process, undertaking quantitative analysis to identify the region's leading financial institutions.

This groundbreaking research takes account of banks' assets, liabilities, total income, net profit and return on assets across eight countries.

"For the first time, Middle East investors, shareholders and consumers will be in a position to understand the real relative performance of financial institutions and be able to compare their results easily and quickly against others in the region," said CPI Financial chief operating officer Adam Broom.

The awards were compiled from the CPI Financial 100 top banks.

These banks in the Middle East controlled assets worth $1.4 trillion and together made aggregate net profits of $21.7 billion in 2010, rising 24.28 per cent on the previous year.

The analysis took account of the actual size of each measure, annual dollar growth and percentage growth thus clearly identifying the best banks in the region as well as the fastest growing institution in each country.

"For too long, many awards programmes in the region have demonstrated no clear methodology or justification in the selection of their winners," he said.

"Now CPI Financial has chosen clear and transparent performance indicators collated from institutions' annual reports," he added.

"For more than a decade, the Banker Middle East Industry Awards have been setting the benchmark for successful banking and financial institutions in the Mena region," said CPI Financial managing editor Robin Amlot.

"This latest evolution in our awards process ensures that we will continue to do so," he added.-TradeArabia News Service