Latest news with #CorporateBanking
Al Bawaba
21-07-2025
- Business
- Al Bawaba
KIB wins CFI.co's 2025 Award for Excellence in Innovative Corporate Banking Services
Kuwait International Bank (KIB) is proud to announce that it has been awarded the prestigious title of 'Excellence in Innovative Corporate Banking Services – MENA 2025' by the Capital Finance International ( Awards. This recognition underscores KIB's notable role in delivering cutting-edge, Shari'ah-compliant banking services, and reflects its strategic commitment to bolstering the banking landscape in Kuwait and beyond. The judging panel commended KIB for its outstanding performance in offering diverse banking solutions, from financing various commercial activities, projects and trade services, to treasury products and bespoke advisory, tailored to the specific needs of corporate customers and aligned with Islamic Shari'ah principles. The award also recognizes KIB's contribution to advancing economic development by financing major infrastructure projects in alignment with Kuwait's Vision 2035. Commenting on the Bank's latest achievement, Hesham Al Mubaraki, General Manager of the Wholesale Banking Department at KIB, stated: 'We are very proud of KIB's continued recognition on the international stage. This award reflects the success of our forward-thinking approach and our unwavering commitment to empowering corporate customers through tailored financial solutions and digital innovation. At KIB, we continue to anticipate the evolving needs of our customers, delivering banking services that are not only compliant with Shari'ah, but also creative and aligned with global standards of excellence.' Al Mubaraki emphasized that KIB has rapidly evolved through substantial investments in digital capabilities and product development. At the core of this advancement is the KIB Digital Factory, an innovation hub designed to attract and nurture top-tier talent focused on developing next-generation banking products and services. Through this initiative, KIB has launched specialized digital platforms, upgraded existing channels, and integrated digital tools into core business operations. Al Mubaraki added: 'Looking ahead, KIB aims to expand its reach by pursuing new business ventures, offering Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) to non-banking institutions. The Bank also aims to explore opportunities in non-traditional banking activities and plans to introduce a wider range of investment products, along with additional services and offerings provided by the Treasury Department. Through its innovative financial offerings, KIB is committed to playing a key role in fostering the growth of entrepreneurs and startups, empowering the next generation of businesses to thrive.' It serves to note that is one of London's most prominent media platforms specializing in covering business, economy, and finance news, while its awards program stands as one of the largest international forums to evaluate and recognize individuals and institutions that have contributed to providing the highest standards of innovation and excellence in the economic and financial sector worldwide.
Al Bawaba
14-07-2025
- Business
- Al Bawaba
Bank ABC recognised as the Best Bank in the Middle East for Transaction Banking by The Banker for a second time
Bank ABC has been recognised as the Best Bank for Transaction Banking in the Middle East by The Banker - Financial Times for a second time. This regional award is testament to the acceleration of Bank ABC's ambitious digital strategy. The Banker's highly coveted awards are an industry benchmark for banking excellence, adjudged by industry leaders and its top editors from the Financial ABC stood out for delivering an innovative corporate banking offering, enabling enhanced connectivity, and a seamless end-to-end digital customer experience. This encompasses the global rollout of a revolutionary Corporate Portal, leveraging cutting-edge, AI-driven technologies to offer a custom persona-based experience and instant access to the Bank's Trade, Supply Chain Finance and Cash Management products and on the Bank's major win, Bank ABC's Group CEO, Sael Al Waary remarked: "We are honoured to receive The Banker's Transaction Banking Award for the Middle East and would like to thank the Financial Times for this prestigious title. This esteemed recognition highlights our focused strategic transformation journey and our continued efforts to shape banking in the region as MENA's International Bank of the Future. Over the past year, we have accelerated the digitisation of our Wholesale Bank, enhancing our global network to provide our clients with a superior, highly personalised multi-experience platform. This achievement is a testament to the collaborative efforts of our team. I would like to sincerely thank them for their dedication and thank our clients for their unwavering trust.'Bank ABC serves clients in twenty-five markets through its international network spanning fifteen countries across MENA, Europe, the Americas and Asia. The Bank's growth strategy is well underway, centered around accelerating core performance, digitising its businesses and strengthening operational efficiency. The Bank has steadily expanded its footprint with its pivotal merger with BLOM Bank Egypt, integrating more than 18 business and support functions and expanding its market share in the the digital innovation front, the Bank continued to roll out its seamless digital corporate onboarding solution across 13 global units, enabling corporate clients to open an account with the Bank in less than eight hours, a tremendous reduction to the 60-day industry average. In addition, the Bank collaborated with the Central Bank of Bahrain and J.P. Morgan to launch a next-generation instant cross-border payment service, powered by blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, driving significant efficiencies in trade related payments. Building on recent achievements, Bank ABC continues to make an impact in the region's financial domain with next-level digital deliveries, growing financial performance and a new kind of banking for corporate customers to experience.
Zawya
10-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Rizwan Shaikh has recently been appointed Head of Services for Citi in the Middle East & Africa
Rizwan joins Services from Banking and has been with the firm for 27 years, working across Capital Markets and Corporate and Investment Banking. He most recently served as Head of Corporate Banking for MEA and has a history of securing landmark deals and driving strong revenues and returns for the business. He understands how to bring together the power of our network, with a deep knowledge of our product suite across Services, Markets and Banking. In addition, he has a well-established track record in risk management and is a Senior Credit Officer (SCO2) and Senior Securities Officer (SSO), managing the underwriting of market and credit risk across challenging geographies and volatile market cycles. In addition to serving as Head of Services for MEA, Rizwan will continue to lead MEA Corporate Banking until a successor is appointed. Services provides global solutions that help corporations, financial institutions, public sector and commercial clients optimize operations and drive their business forward. Through its five business lines – Liquidity Management Services, Payments, Trade & Working Capital Solutions, Investor Services and Issuer Services – Citi provides cash management, payments/receivables solutions, working capital solutions, post-trade securities services and issuer services across Citi's global network.
Associated Press
30-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Banks Can Speed Access to Capital with New Oracle Trade and Supply Chain Finance Cloud Services
Automation and streamlined operations enable greater speed, transparency, and value-added services to corporate clients AUSTIN, Texas, June 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- New Oracle Trade Finance and Supply Chain Finance cloud services are empowering banks to provide corporate and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients faster access to financing through streamlined trade processes. Oracle has introduced these new cloud services to unify operations and help manage the entire trade and supply chain finance lifecycles. The new trade finance service enables banks to streamline, automate, and manage trade finance operations across geographies and currencies, improving operational efficiency and visibility. The new supply chain finance service enables the full lifecycle and factoring across receivables and payables, offering supplier-centric and buyer-centric financing. By modernizing these corporate banking functions, banks can accelerate underwriting processes, improve regulatory compliance management, reduce physical documentation, and more effectively prevent fraud. In addition, the new digital self-service capabilities provide corporate clients the ability to initiate transactions and get real-time updates, including the ability to transparently track the progress of their finance requests, manage collateral, and get a real-time view of limits utilized, leading to a better customer experience. Corporates can also digitally onboard their counterparties as part of a tailored supply chain finance program with automated Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. This helps inject liquidity across the value chain for more financial flexibility and to enable banks to offer add-on services to the trade ecosystem. 'Trade finance and supply chain finance demand a resilient and agile technology foundation, one that can adapt to the inherent volatility of global commerce,' said Sovan Shatpathy, senior vice president, product management and development, Oracle Financial Services. 'Our next-generation cloud solutions are purpose-built to transform how banks manage the full trade lifecycle delivering faster execution, greater operational efficiency, and enhanced transparency by harnessing the scale and intelligence of the cloud.' The new solutions are part of the broader Oracle Banking Cloud Services portfolio, which includes Oracle Digital Banking Experience, Banking APIs, Originations, Accounts, Cash Management, Enterprise Limits and Collateral Management, Payments and Retail cloud services. Addressing the trade finance and supply chain finance gap The Asian Development Bank has reported1 that the global trade finance gap is estimated at USD $2.5 trillion or 10% of global merchandise trade, indicating the scarcity in the availability of finance for trade stakeholders. Addressing this scarcity challenge is often marred by legacy systems that stifle innovation with manual workflows, inefficient processes, and inconsistent communication. Oracle Banking Trade Finance Cloud Service provides automated workflows and flexible product configurations to support digital trade operations across multiple geographies. This includes managing the end-to-end lifecycle for a wide range of trade finance services, such as documentary credits, guarantees, and documentary collections. Oracle Banking Supply Chain Finance Cloud Service is a pre-built and pre-configured digital, front-to-back solution that enables banks to bring new products to market faster and efficiently manage buyers and suppliers on the same platform. Complete automation and straight-through processing (STP) of disbursement and liquidation processes also helps banks scale their supply chain finance operations and reach new customer segments. Each cloud-native application in the componentized, and composable Oracle Banking Cloud Services portfolio helps banks modernize with less risk and deliver faster time-to-value. Services can run standalone or integrate with existing systems, providing provisioning and availability in just minutes. They also feature automated patching and reduced disaster-recovery switchover times that can lower IT costs and burden. The services are built on the security, performance and scalability of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure . To learn more, visit: About Oracle Financial Services Oracle Financial Services provides solutions for retail banking, corporate banking, payments, asset management, life insurance, annuities, and healthcare payers. With our comprehensive set of integrated digital and data platforms, banks and insurers are empowered to deliver next-generation financial services. We enable customer-centric transformation, support collaborative innovation, and drive efficiency. Our data and analytical platforms help financial institutions drive customer insight, integrate risk and finance, fight financial crime, and comply with regulations. To learn more, visit our website at . About Oracle Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at . Trademarks Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing. 1 ADB - 2023 Trade Finance Gaps, Growth, and Jobs Survey, September 2023, View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Oracle
Zawya
17-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Mashreq structures debut sustainability-linked financing for Galadari Brothers
Dubai, UAE: Mashreq, a leading financial institution in the MENA region, has structured the first Sustainability-Linked Financing (SLF) for Galadari Brothers, a UAE-based leading conglomerate, marking a significant step in advancing their sustainability journey. As one of the UAE's most diversified and longstanding business groups – with operations spanning media, heavy equipment, food and beverage, motors, engineering, projects, facility management, sports, travel and hospitality, real estate, and other ventures – Galadari Brothers is accelerating its commitment to a robust sustainability strategy, further engaging stakeholders through clear KPIs and ambitious targets. Structured under Mashreq's bilateral lending relationship with the group, this transaction represents one of the largest bilateral SLF deals for a local UAE conglomerate till date. The SLF introduces performance-based pricing linked to three core Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) centered around resource efficiency, circular economy and internal capacity building and institutional alignment with ESG principles. The financing builds on the group's inaugural green loan previously extended by Mashreq in 2023 to support energy-efficiency retrofits at Galadari's flagship hotel in Sri Lanka. Joel Van Dusen, Group Head of Corporate & Investment Banking, at Mashreq said: 'This transaction with Galadari Brothers, a name synonymous with industrial and commercial growth in the UAE, demonstrates how sustainability can be embedded into core financing structures. As long-term partners, we are proud to support the group's Sustainability ambitions and to play a catalytic role in the region's transition toward more responsible capital markets. Sustainability-linked finance is the future of corporate lending, and we are committed to helping clients lead from the front.' Faisal AL Shimmari, Head of ESG and Corporate Strategy at Mashreq, commented: 'This deal is a clear example of how sustainability-linked finance can be applied across complex, multi-sector businesses—not just to drive environmental outcomes, but to empower people and communities. As one of Mashreq's largest bilateral transactions to date, it reflects a broader shift in the region, where more companies are aligning financing with their ESG ambitions in ways that directly impact lives. This SLF with Galadari Brothers builds on Mashreq's commitment to helping clients achieve measurable ESG outcomes that support both national priorities and global sustainability goals. By embedding human-centricity into our financial instruments—through inclusive KPIs, transparent governance, and stakeholder engagement—we ensure that sustainability is not just about metrics, but about meaningful progress for individuals, families, and society at large' Mohammed Galadari, Co-Chairman and Group CEO of Galadari Brothers, said: 'This milestone Sustainability-Linked Financing deal marks an important step forward in our ongoing efforts to integrate environmental, social, and governance principles across all areas of our business. As we continue to grow and diversify, aligning our financial strategy with clear ESG goals is both a business priority and a reflection of the values we stand for. Our partnership with Mashreq reinforces our commitment to building a more sustainable future for our businesses, our people, and the communities we serve, while also supporting the UAE's broader vision for responsible and inclusive growth.' R V Ramanan, Group Chief Financial Officer of Galadari Brothers, said: 'This landmark transaction with Mashreq marks a significant step in aligning the Group's financing strategy with our ESG ambitions. It reflects our vision to progressively transition toward a fully green and sustainability-linked model. More than just a transaction, it reinforces our long-term commitment to responsible growth—integrating sustainability into the core of how we fund our expansion across sectors and regions.' This transaction supports Mashreq's broader sustainable finance strategy and contributes to its goal of facilitating USD 30 billion in sustainable finance by 2030. The bank has played a leading role in several notable ESG transactions in the region, including the largest sustainability-linked loan in the region to date. The facility is also part of Mashreq's Climb2Change initiative, a global platform that unifies the bank's efforts in sustainable finance, responsible banking, and social impact, reinforcing its position as a leader in sustainable banking across the MENA region. About Mashreq Mashreq is more than half century old bank, yet proudly thinks like a challenger, startup, and innovator. Mashreq pioneered key innovations and developments in banking, starting with entry-level digital-first customers, all the way to powering some of the region's most prominent corporations and wealth accounts. The bank's mandate is to help customers find their way to Rise Every Day, partnering through the highs and lows to help them reach fulfilment, achieve financial goals, and unlock their vision of success. Reassuringly present in major financial centers of the world, Mashreq's home and global HQ remains in the Middle East, offering services whenever and wherever opportunity takes its customers. About Galadari Brothers For more than 60 years, Galadari Brothers has pioneered growth. We combine the ambition of a powerful partner with the inspired spirit of a family-owned business, with the company thriving across various sectors – from media to heavy equipment, food & beverage, motors, engineering, projects, facility management, sports, travel and hospitality, real estate, and other ventures. That's why some of the world's most admired brands, including Baskin Robbins, Komatsu, Mazda, Dunkin', Kawasaki, JCB, Kyochon, Triumph, Sitrak, and more, trust us with their growth. Our team of more than 6,000 pioneers operate across ten countries to drive growth for licensed and owned brands, including Khaleej Times, Halla Shawarma, Shabestan and Galadari Energy Solutions. Together, we are creating a world of boundless innovation and creativity, to elevate the GCC and beyond.
