The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), a leading bank in the UAE, won the awards for best risk management bank and the best bank in the UAE for 2011 at the recent Banker Middle East Industry Awards for Excellence 2011.

“In 2011, NBAD has again won top recognition from prestigious publications that set the benchmark for excellence,” said Michael H Tomalin, the Group chief executive of NBAD.

“The latest accolades confirm the industry’s recognition of NBAD’s outstanding business results, growth, and leadership in risk management practices."

“I thank Banker Middle East. I also thank the NBAD staff for their commitment to uphold NBAD’s customer-centric values and for adopting quality risk management practices, which reflects NBAD’s commitment to value all our stakeholders,” he added.

NBAD is the first UAE bank to break the $1 billion net profits as it earned Dh3,683 million ($1.003 billion) in 2010, a statement said.

NBAD is also named in the 50 safest banks in the World in 2009 and 2010 by Global Finance. Euromoney has named it the Best Bank in the UAE three years in a row, 2009, 2010, 2011, and five times over the last decade.

“The National Bank of Abu Dhabi has committed itself to a customer-centric culture and we have achieved this objective by defining and adhering by our values, which include ‘understanding our customers’ needs’ and to be ‘accessible to our customers 24 x 7,’” said Saif Al Shehhi, senior general manager of the Domestic Banking Division of NBAD.

“Our approach to be a customer-centric bank is one that has paid off and I am honoured and proud that my staffs across all facets of consumer banking have contributed to making NBAD the Best Bank in the UAE.”

NBAD is rated senior long term/short term A+/A-1 by Standard & Poor's, Aa3/P1 by Moody’s, AA-/F1+ by Fitch and A+ by Rating and Investment Information, giving it one of the strongest combined rating of any Middle Eastern financial institution.

Abhijit Choudhury, senior general manager and Group chief risk officer of NBAD, said: “It has been NBAD’s constant endeavour to build a robust, ‘best in class’ risk management platform to facilitate business, while safeguarding the interests of our various stakeholders. The Bank has invested significantly in this effort, and remains committed to this ever evolving development and enhancement process.”

“We see the challenge in the pursuit of Quality Risk Management standards, not simply in the development of infrastructure, but more importantly in the successful percolation and dissemination of a standardised risk culture across the institution that visibly plays its part in the day to day conduct of our business and operations,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service