NBO wins corporate governance award- National Bank of Oman’s corporate governance practices have been recognised for the second consecutive year at the ‘Regional 2009 Bank Corporate Governance Award’ competition, recently organised by the Institute of Corporate Governance (Hawkamah) and the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) in Dubai, UAE.

The competition attracted 30 applications from banks in 11 Middle East jurisdictions including UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia.

Criteria

The criteria for the award included commitment to good corporate governance; structure and functioning of the board of directors; control environment and processes; transparency and disclosure; and treatment of minority shareholders.

Launched in 2007 by Hawkamah and UAB, the ‘Regional Bank Corporate Governance Award’ seeks to identify and honour regional banks that show leadership and initiative in enhancing good corporate governance. Sponsored by MasterCard Worldwide, the award has become a prestigious, competitive and highly-coveted bank award that highlights the industry’s strong commitment to good corporate governance.

The award was handed over to the representatives of the National Bank of Oman, Mansoor Darwish Al Raisi, deputy general manager, compliance, and Hassan Abdul Amir Sha’aban, assistant general manager, during a ceremony held at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Dubai, UAE.

Selection of the winners of the 2009 Regional Bank Corporate Governance Award was based upon an assessment carried out by a distinguished jury panel that comprised international banking and governance experts including Professor Andrew Chambers, Director of Management Audit, a consultancy which specialises in audit and corporate governance matters and the chairman of the corporate governance and risk management committee of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Charles Freeland, a well-respected international banking consultant and former deputy secretary general, basel committee on banking and Alan McIntyre, financial services sector leader for the Middle East Region for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Murray Sims, Chief Executive Officer of the National Bank of Oman said, “I am very delighted that our bank has won this prestigious award. Our governance practices are in constant evolution while our policies and structures are regularly updated to meet our shareholder requirements and current trends. Our board of directors and executive management are all committed to a long term strategy that focuses on continuous improvement at all levels, showing great commitment to creating lasting value for the bank’s local, regional and international stakeholders. In fact, this highly acclaimed award in corporate governance validates the efforts exerted by all employees of our bank towards this end. “.

Established in 1973, National Bank of Oman has gained international recognition for the high-quality services and products, which it offers to its clients. The bank provides a wide range of corporate, investment, retail and private banking and treasury products and services to its clients through an extensive network of 63 domestic branches, four wealth management centres, six overseas branches as well as a network of over 160 ATMs.