18 awards were delivered at Gala Dinner attended by Ministers, central bankers, regulators, C-suite bankers & asset managers, policy makers and FinTech entrepreneurs

Manama, Bahrain, 3 December 2015

Last night, the 22nd annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) recognized excellence within the Islamic finance and banking industry at a high profile Gala Dinner in the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain. 18 WIBC Performance Awards were granted to the top Islamic financial institutions based purely on their performance at the global, regional and national levels.

Masraf Al Rayan came away with the global award, testament to its strong performance in the financial metrics of the WIBC Leaderboard. The Leader board, an initiative conceived by the conveners of WIBC - Middle East Global Advisors - is a groundbreaking performance assessment tool aimed at enabling Islamic financial institutions to benchmark their performance against their peers. It formed the basis of the WIBC Performance Awards, which aggregates numerous financial metrics from the Leaderboard.

The WIBC Performance Awards represents WIBC's a commitment to objective and quantitative approach to assessing banking performance.

Speaking on her bank's win of the industry's flagship award within the Southeast Asian category, the CEO of Hong Leong Islamic Bank, Raja Teh Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz, said:

"We are honoured to be recognized as the best performing bank and we believe that the recognition gained is based on our transparency and our strict adherence of Islamic banking principles which include honesty and integrity to all our stakeholders. At Hong Leong Islamic Bank, we engage in proactive reporting to support the fundamental elements of corporate sustainability as well as to enhance market perceptions on Islamic finance. More importantly, an element reflecting an increased global financial reporting standards in our Annual reporting is that also includes Shari'ah audit report".

Dr. Sayd Farook, Vice Chairman & CEO of Middle East Global Advisors, the convenors or WIBC, also highlighted the sheer importance of rigorous objective assessment underpinning the awards: "The WIBC Performance Awards are based on a solid quantitative methodology, assessing Islamic banks across more than a dozen indicators of financial performance, financial stability , governance and social responsibility. This award cannot be manipulated and is also audited by Ernst and Young."

Dr. Farook continued: "This evening's award winners should be commended on the quality and dedication of the management team and their sincerity not only to perform well, but also to do it on a sound and ethical basis."

The Awards were delivered by H.E. Rasheed Mohamed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain and Mr. Khalid Hamad, Executive Director for Banking Supervision at the Central Bank of Bahrain.

The overall winners of the 22ndAnnual WIBC Performance Awards were:

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Global

Masraf Al Rayan

Best Performing Islamic Bank - GCC

Masraf Al Rayan

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Levant

Jordan Islamic Bank

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Southeast Asia

Hong Leong Islamic Bank

Best Performing Islamic Bank - South Asia

Social Islami Bank Limited

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Bahrain

Bahrain Islamic Bank

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Bangladesh

Social Islami Bank Limited

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Egypt

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank - Egypt

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Indonesia

Bank BNI Syariah

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Jordan

Jordan Islamic Bank

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Kuwait

Boubyan Bank

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Oman

Bank Nizwa

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Pakistan

Meezan Bank Limited

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Qatar

Masraf Al Rayan

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Saudi Arabia

Bank AlBilad

Best Performing Islamic Bank - Turkey

Turkiye Finans Katilim

Best Performing Islamic Bank - UAE

Noor Bank

To view the WIBC Leaderboard results, visit www.wibc2015.com/leaderboard.

The 3rdfinal day of the World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) 2015 at the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain will conclude today with the much coveted session of the Chief Economist of Bank of China International (BoCI), who will speak to the effect of China's economy and policies for the year 2016. To find out more about WIBC, visit www.wibc2015.com.

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ABOUT MIDDLE EAST GLOBAL ADVISORS
Connecting markets with intelligent insights & strategic execution since 1993.

Middle East Global Advisors (MEGA) is the gateway connectivity and intelligence platform to opportunities in the rapidly developing economic region that stretches all the way from Morocco in the West to Indonesia in the East - The Middle East North Africa Southeast Asia (MENASEA) connection. We pride ourselves for being at the heart of these diverse markets for over 22 years.

Visit us at meglobaladvisors.com.

ABOUT WIBC
The World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) has established its reputation as the world's largest and most influential gathering of international Islamic banking and finance leaders for over two decades. With the strategic support of the Central Bank of Bahrain, the next generation WIBC will focus on transforming Islamic finance into a global proposition by facilitating strategic opportunities, addressing systematic challenges and connecting international market players and institutional investors to the industry's catalysts, thought leaders, partners and institutions.

For over two decades, WIBC has served as a key platform for bankers, institutional investors, asset managers, policymakers, academics and other stakeholders within Islamic finance and banking from key markets such as Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Sudan, Nigeria, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other Asian growth markets. Over the years it hosted globally renowned leaders such as Sir Howard Davies, Former Chairman of the European Central Bank, Professor Robert Kaplan of Harvard Business School, Nicholas Naseem Taleb, the author of "The Black Swan," and Dr. Mark Mobius, Emerging Markets Guru and Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets. With its strong focus on cutting edge content, WIBC remains the strategic event for staying ahead of the innovation and technology forces that will shape the Islamic financial services industry in the near future.

To find out more, visit www.wibc2015.com.

Join the global conversation on Twitter via @wibc_2015 #wibc2015

Nikita Kandath
Marketing & Media Manager
Middle East Global Advisors
Tel: +971 4 441 4946
Email: nikita@meglobaladvisors.com

© Press Release 2015