• Best Digital Bank of the Year in Qatar
• Best Retail Bank of the Year in Qatar
• Best Client Onboarding and Account Opening in the Middle East

23 November 2020 – Doha, Qatar: Qatar Islamic Bank’s (QIB), the largest private bank in Qatar, is pleased to announce its recognition with 3 prestigious awards at The Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards 2020 by The Digital Banker Magazine. QIB was awarded “Best Digital Bank of the Year in Qatar”, “Best Retail Bank of the Year in Qatar”, and “Best Client Onboarding and Account Opening in the Middle East” awards.

The Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards Program recognizes the world’s top retail banking and finance institutions with distinguished contribution to the industry. The awards are accolades of excellence, and are attributed to outstanding banks that showed excellence on the levels of digital innovation, products development, service delivery, customer centricity and customer experience, in addition to financial performance and strength of balance sheet. The awards program is globally acclaimed and co-judged by top international consulting companies and seminal subject matter experts to ensure full transparency and impartial assessment.

Commenting on QIB’s latest global recognition, Mr. Bassel Gamal, QIB Group CEO said: “We are pleased to be recognized for our innovation and outstanding performance in servicing all our customers. QIB has developed its own repertoire and know-how in offering the best products and services to existing and potential customers, and we are proud that our customer-centric approach is now a reference not only in Qatar but in the region as well. QIB will continue implementing its long-term strategy where the customer comes first, and we are always dedicated to offer the best, fastest, and most trusted banking products in Qatar.” 

Mr. Bassel added: “Our recognition today is certainly the result of all QIB employees’ dedication and hard work to successfully implement the innovative strategy of our Board of Directors which has been very supportive along the way.  Digital innovation remains QIB’s main drive in designing seamless banking products and services with the objective of being a bank that offers end to end fully-digital services to its customers. Our digital transformation strategy allowed us to offer unique digital solutions in the market, some of them for the first time in Qatar and the region, and to continuously offer our customers the fastest banking experiences through our Mobile App and Internet Banking channels.”

Since March 2020, QIB was able to implement a comprehensive “Bank Safely from Home” campaign, which saw an unprecedented increase in reliance on digital channels by QIB’s existing and new customers. Relying on its advanced digital channels, QIB was able to ensure business continuity and offer all its banking products and services to retail and corporate customers while only 20% of its employees working from their offices between April and June 2020.

In 2020, QIB has seen an acceleration of the introduction of innovative digital products and services. Being the first bank in Qatar to introduce a Digital Onboarding solution on its Mobile App, QIB was successful in digitally acquiring new customers who opened current, Misk or savings accounts in 5 minutes and without a need to visit a QIB branch. QIB also announced that domestic workers in Qatar can now open their own bank accounts with QIB, directly through the bank’s award winning Mobile App in line with the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) directives to support all segments of the society and promote the principle of financial inclusion to domestic workers in Qatar, and to facilitate timely payment and access to their wages as well as easy and fast international transfers.

The QIB Mobile App allows customers to benefit from a range of innovative services, such as getting personal financing, opening additional accounts, issuing a credit card, or applying for any Takaful policy in just 5 minutes. QIB has recently announced further upgrades on its Mobile App, further empowering its customers to instantly manage and control their credit and charge cards through and update all their personal and employer information straight through the App.

QIB’s Mobile App is available on App Store, Google Play, and Huawei AppGallery, and rated 4.7+ on Play Store and App Store, making it the most voted and top-rated application in the banking sector in Qatar. With more than 100 features, QIB Mobile App became customers’ preferred banking channel and a digital one-stop-shop answering to all their banking needs from any location across the globe, and at any time with 24/7 accessibility.

QIB has recently announced the results for the nine months’ period ended 30 September 2020. Net Profit attributable to the Shareholders of the Bank amounted to QAR 2,216.5 Million for the nine months’ period ended September 2020 in line with the performance during the same period in 2019. Total Assets of the Bank now stands at QAR 170 Billion higher by 4% compared to December 2019 with a growth of 9.8% compared to September 2019 driven by the continued growth in the financing and investing activities. Financing activities have now reached QAR 113.2 Billion having grown by 5.7% compared to September 2019. Customer Deposits of the Bank now stand at QAR 112 Billion higher by 5% compared to September 2019.