Four subsidiary banking units of the Bahrain-based Islamic bank Al Baraka Banking Group received the Best Islamic Bank Award of 2012, as part of the annual awards from Global Finance magazine.

These banking units are Banque Al Baraka D'Algerie as the Best Islamic Bank in Algeria, Jordan Islamic Bank as the Best Islamic Bank in Jordan for the fourth year and also the Best Islamic Retail Bank in the world for the third year in a row, Al Baraka Islamic Bank Bahrain as the Best Islamic Bank in Bahrain and Al Baraka Bank Limited as the Best Islamic Bank in South Africa.

The winning of these awards was announced in a final result statement by the magazine's award committee, which included in its membership a number of economists and editors of Global Finance, international financial advisers and a number of bank managers and experts in the field of banking.

Al Baraka units received this award for their prominent role in the Islamic banking sector, their ability to achieve consistent growth in the future and meeting professional standards in terms of the quality of products and services offered to clients.

They were honoured also for their originality and innovation in services and customer service, continued development and innovation in banking operations and other important criteria such as strategic relationships, geographic reach, profitability and robustness of financial position.

The award will be given at a ceremony which will be held in Tokyo at the same time as the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank that will be held on October 13.

"We are very happy with the achievement of four of our banking units winning these international awards, which reflect the leading status that these units enjoy in their countries," said Al Baraka Banking Group president and chief executive Adnan Ahmed Yousif.

"These awards affirm the excellent performance of these units and the good reputation they have in the Islamic banking sector at the local, regional and international levels," he said.

"The subsidiary banking units of our group, through their long history in countries where they operate, have come to be amongst the leading financial institutions in servicing their communities and are most established in terms of their expertise and knowledge of local markets.

"This has enabled them to achieve rapid expansion in terms of number of branches and to offer more innovative and high-quality products and services to their customer base," he added. – TradeArabia News Service