United Arab Emirates, Dubai, November 25th 2008: Emirates Islamic Bank topped the annual Benchmarking and Service Quality Study of banks conducted recently by the well known Dubai-based Ethos Consultancy. The Bank came out on top with an excellent performance across all the delivery channels and was ranked as the best Islamic bank in the UAE while coming third in the overall standings of 29 banks surveyed. This is the second time that the Bank has won the Top Islamic Bank Award.

This fourth annual survey in the country used criteria based on quality of service and the speed of customer service staff response. Trained and experienced researchers or "mystery shoppers" tracked all the different channels - branches, call centers and websites  over a five week period.

Commenting on the accolade, Mr. Faisal Aqil, General Manager Retail Banking for Emirates Islamic Bank, said, "We are very happy to be awarded such prestigious award for the second time. This award is a reflection of our successful business model that has always and will continue to put customer experience as a top priority. Emerging as the best Islamic bank regularly is a wonderful reward for all our sincere efforts at making the customer experience and shariaa compliance, the center of our focus. What makes our satisfaction manifold is the fact that the study is based on an extensive industry research carried out by a neutral and credible research organization."

Researchers visited branches of the banks and various other customer service channels such as ATM machines, call center, website, etc, allowing them to comprehensively monitor the response time taken by the banks.

During the study, Ethos researchers conducted 1,500 visits to the 29 banks covered and data collected measured 80 different criteria which mean 40,000 responses were analyzed.

Emirates Islamic Bank's ranking is monumental considering the booming growth of banks in the UAE, which has possibly one of the most competitive banking industries in the world. The large numbers of retail banks that exist in the country depend highly on their ability to capture market share to determine their future. 

The rapid growth of UAE's population has also seen the demand for banking services increase manifold with service quality and the speed of response fast becoming key differentiators.

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About Emirates Islamic Bank:
Emirates Islamic Bank opened its doors in October 2004 with a mission to provide consumers in the UAE with effective and innovative Shari'a-compliant financial solutions.

The Bank offers a range of Shari'a compliant products and services conforming to the highest standards of Islamic finance and all its activities are overseen by a Shari'a board comprising several prestigious scholars of Islamic law.

On the retail side, the bank has an array of products, such as a full range of credit cards including Visa Infinite Card; Manzili Home Finance, Intaleq Car Finance, and many other products. The bank has also launched Al Reem Ladies Banking, a specialized banking service designed to cater to the banking and financial needs of women in the region.

The bank also offers Ethmar Priority banking to suit the demands of the high-net-worth clients.

Emirates Islamic Bank is very active on the Corporate Banking level, seeking exceptional investment opportunities in the local as well as the regional market. Within almost three years of its inception Emirates Islamic Bank has managed to position itself as one of leading financial players in the UAE's banking sector. The bank's rapid growth and success is mainly due to its continued successful launch of Shari'a compliant products, services and other key business initiatives.

EIB is headquartered in Dubai and employs more than 800 staff.   

For additional information please contact:
Nicolas Khoury
PR Account Executive
Tel: 04 295 11 77
Fax: 04 295 11 88
Email: nicolas@tamra-c2.com

© Press Release 2008