Emirates Islamic, one of the leading Islamic financial institutions in the UAE, has been named the Fastest Growing Bank – UAE at the Banker Middle East Industry Awards 2016, in recognition of its exceptional growth in 2015.

The award was received by Syed Muhammad Umair, head of Priority Banking, Emirates Islamic at a ceremony held recently at Emirates Towers, Dubai.

With consistently strong results and solid double-digit growth rates, Emirates Islamic has seen a consistent 25 - 35 per cent annual growth over the last four years. In 2015, the bank’s net income increased by 25 per cent to Dh2.43 billion ($661 million) and net profit increased by 76 per cent to Dh641 million. The bank also witnessed a 26 per cent increase in its customer base with deposits growing by 25 per cent to Dh39.3 billion.

Jamal Bin Ghalaita, chief executive officer of Emirates Islamic said: “This award is a testament to the success of our transformation strategy launched in 2011 with a clear objective to become the leading Islamic bank in the country.  Our numbers speak for themselves; in terms of year on year growth in Total Revenue, Operating Profit and Net Profit, we are far ahead of our competition and these outstanding results are a culmination of the efforts put in by the entire team at Emirates Islamic, along with the wholehearted support of our Board of Directors.”

“I would like to add that our financial success has given us the ability to contribute more to the betterment of the overall community, with over Dh30 million distributed to a range of charitable causes in 2015 through our Emirates Islamic charity fund. We believe that the UAE can easily achieve its objective of a truly happy society, with the support of all organisations and individuals.

“Going forward, we are determined to fulfil Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s vision of making Dubai the global capital of Islamic economy and will continue to focus on our core values of ‘Innovation’ and ‘Customer First’, to continue expanding boundaries and raising the standard of the industry into 2016 and beyond,” added Bin Ghalaita.

The Banker Middle East Industry Awards 2016, sponsored by the CPI Financial Group and now in its eighteenth year, covers all financial services including retail, corporate, investment, private banking, asset management, fund management, finance companies and consultancy practices.

Over 200 institutions were nominated across the region from UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Lebanon and the winners were selected after a stringent analytical process and 15,000 individual votes. – TradeArabia News Service