Awarded for distinctive expense management features, and control and savings capability

First issuer in the Middle East to sign up for Visa's Multinational Programme

Dubai, June 2, 2012: Emirates NBD, the largest banking group in the region, announced today that it has won recognition for 'Best Corporate Card' at the recent Smart Card Awards Middle East 2012 awards. The Emirates NBD Corporate Card won the award based on its distinctive expense management features and the control and savings capability it provides corporate customers.

Launched in August 2011, Emirates NBD's Commercial Cards programme comprises a complete suite of products including Corporate Travel & Entertainment Card, Corporate Travel Account and Procurement Card. The award winning Corporate Card offers a robust payment solution for business organisations' expenses related to travel, entertainment and procurement. Other benefits include Corporate Liability Waiver Insurance and access to more than 50 airport lounges around the world, apart from golf and dining offers.

The Emirates NBD Corporate Card is bundled with an advanced Spend and Expense Management solution known as Visa IntelliLink, which not only features sophisticated demographic and transactional level reporting but also expense management capabilities that can be integrated into ERP systems.

"Emirates NBD has the largest footprint both in the retail and corporate space, and our focus has been to deliver convenience and value to customers across the entire stream of payment categories, through innovative products tailored to their requirements," said R. Sivaram, Senior Vice President and Head of Cards Business, Emirates NBD. "Through our commercial cards programme we offer an end-to-end solution for all commercial and business payments. We are delighted with the industry recognition at the Smart Card Awards this year, as this further underlines the superiority of the corporate card, which already has a very high rate of adoption amongst our corporate clientele."

Emirates NBD's Commercial Cards programme has also been recognised by Visa as the best in class, with benefits and capabilities, including an enhanced reporting through the IntelliLink Spend Management System. Invited by Visa to participate in the globally renowned Visa Multinational Program (MNP), Emirates NBD is the first bank in the Middle East to become a member of this exclusive programme.

"Emirates NBD is the first issuer in the Middle East to roll out the full suite of Visa Corporate Cards, Purchasing Cards and Central Travel Accounts in conjunction with the Visa Intellilink Spend Management solution," said Marcello Baricordi, General Manager UAE, Visa Middle East. "The award Emirates NBD has received is a testament to the hard work and collaboration between the Emirates NBD and Visa teams to bring such innovative solutions to their corporate customers. We are also very pleased that Emirates NBD is now a member of the Visa Multinational Programme (MNP), and will be able to provide these solutions to multinational corporates based in the UAE that are served globally by other participating banks participating in the Visa Multinational Programme. This is a very exciting and ground breaking partnership which we believe will bring considerable benefits to corporates who adopt this solution."

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About Emirates NBD
Emirates NBD is a leading banking Group in the region. As at 31 December 2011, total assets were AED 284.6 billion. The Group has a leading retail banking franchise in the UAE, with over 168 branches and over 780 ATMs and SDMs.  It is a major player in the UAE corporate banking arena and has strong Islamic banking, Global Markets & Treasury, Investment Banking, Private Banking, Asset Management and Brokerage operations. 

The Group has operations in the UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Jersey (Channel Islands), and representative offices in India and Iran.

The Group is an active participant and supporter of the UAE's main development initiatives and of the various educational, environmental, cultural, charity and community welfare establishments.

For more information, please visit: www.emiratesnbd.com or contact: 
Afaf Jbara / Hassan Al Khuwaildi
Communications, Group Marketing, Emirates NBD
Tel: 971-4-6093481 / 971-4-6093459
Mob: 971 50 8842020 / 971 50 7454454
Email: Afafj@emiratesbank.com / HassanAl@emiratesnbd.com

Parisa Ansarian / Sudha Chandran
ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller, Dubai, UAE
Tel: 971-4-4507600, Fax: 971-4-4358040
Email: p.ansarian@asdaa.com / s.chandran@asdaa.com

© Press Release 2012