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Bank of the Year Awards 2025
The Bank of the Year Awards are regarded as the industry standard for banking excellence.
Regardless of economic conditions, banks around the world play a crucial role in developing new markets and clients' businesses by rising to industry challenges and developing initiatives to bring financial services to more people across the world.
The competing institutions are judged on their ability to deliver strong financial performance while turning challenges into opportunities in an ever-evolving business environment.
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Bank of the Year Awards 2022 — Middle East
The Middle East’s top lenders from 2022 Bahrain Al Salam BankIn a competitive category, Al Salam Bank has been awarded the title of Bank of the Year for Bahrain in recognition of its strong financial performance and its acquisition of Ithmaar Holding’s retail business.After a challenging 2020, Al Salam Bank rebounded strongly in 2021, with Tier 1 capital and assets growing by 7% and 19%, respectively. The bank posted a 133% rise in profits, with return on assets rising to 7.2%, comfortably above pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. Costs were little changed for the year, while non-performing loans improved from 5.1% in 2020 to 2.1% in 2021.The highlight of the year was Al Salam’s acquisition of the consumer banking business of domestic rival Ithmaar Bank, a 26% stake in Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait and various other assets, as part of a $2.2bn deal with Ithmaar Holding. The transaction, agreed in October 2021 and completed in July, confirms the bank’s status as the largest Islamic lender in Bahrain, with the bank benefiting from an expanded customer base, human resources and infrastructure network.Beyond the acquisition, the bank pressed on with its digital transformation programme, using Oracle Integration Cloud to significantly reduce the lead time to integrate with third parties from weeks to less than a day. As a result, the bank is now able to test and conduct proof-of-concept exercises with third-parties and fintechs with greater efficiency, ease and speed.On the product front, Al Salam Bank launched its Life Planning Account campaign, offering customers competitive profit rates on minimal investments for short-term savings, with the added benefit of accompanying insurance products, including life, children’s education and Covid-19 coverage. In February 2022, the product was expanded to offer more flexible monthly savings options, with the option of a tenor of up to 20 years. Iran Bank PasargadIran is one of the most challenging banking environments in the Middle East, with local lenders operating under a heavy sanctions burden. Bank Pasargad retains its title of Bank of the Year for the country in 2022, in continued recognition of its ongoing progress in the digital space.One of the most significant initiatives for the review period was the launch of Bank Pasargad’s neobank, Wepod. In addition to standard banking services, Wepod’s features include digital authentication via facial recognition, virtual debit card issuance, electronic promissory notes and smart credit scoring mechanisms. The Wepod app had been downloaded 200,000 times by the end of 2021. The bank has reported strong uptake in remote areas and small villages that are not served by physical branches.The bank has subsequently upgraded Wepod to offer microcredit, with customers validated and given access to funds within five minutes. Bank Pasargad notes that 17,000 microcredit loans were granted in the service’s early months, with a third of loans going to customers in rural areas.Last year also saw the launch of the bank’s digital banking branch, which enables customers to open accounts and transact from home. Furthermore, the digital banking branch enables customers to connect into the bank’s ‘Project on Digital Banking Smart Land’, the bank’s emerging platform that forms the basis of an ecosystem for producers, consumers and other sub-platforms. In the past year, around 70,000 customers have opened digital accounts and are fully conducting their banking transactions via the digital banking branch service.Such initiatives are all part of the increased digitisation at Bank Pasargad in recent years, with 97% of the bank’s documents issued digitally during 2021. Israel Bank LeumiThe Bank of the Year award for Israel goes to Bank Leumi, in recognition of the lender’s strong financial performance, its expanded presence in the US and its deepening investment in Israel’s burgeoning fintech sector.The country’s second-largest lender by assets, Bank Leumi’s net profits tripled to NIS6m ($1.75m) in 2021, with Tier 1 capital and assets growing by 10% and 18%, respectively. The cost-to-income ratio fell for the second consecutive year, while non-performing loans recovered to pre-pandemic levels.“Our strategy is to provide our clients with the most convenient and innovative banking experience,” says Hanan Friedman, Bank Leumi’s president and CEO. “Within this framework, we have implemented multi-channels of service to our customers, based on digital tools and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models. This has enabled us to achieve impressive growth, reduce expenses, present the best efficiency ratio in the Israeli banking industry and maintain our position as the leading bank in Israel according to market cap.”The bank signed an agreement in September 2021 to merge its US subsidiary Bank Leumi USA with Valley National Bank. Completed in April 2022, the merger created the 29th largest bank traded on the US stock market, with Bank Leumi retaining a 14.2% stake as the bank’s largest non-controlling shareholder. Active in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Alabama, California and Illinois, the deal is set to see Valley National Bank expand its presence across the country.Back in Israel, the bank announced a new fund called ‘The Garage’, with the intention of investing in 15 local start-ups over a five year period. Established via the bank’s non-financial arm, Leumi Partners, in conjunction with three ex-intelligence services entrepreneurs, the fund will prioritise investment in fields including finance, cyber security and AI. Jordan Arab BankArab Bank has once again been crowned Bank of the Year for Jordan, with 2022 being a year of financial recovery that saw the country’s largest lender make large strides in its digital transformation programme.Perhaps the most visible aspect of the bank’s digital initiatives was the launch in September 2021 of Reflect, the country’s first neobank. Targeted at customers aged 18 to 35, Reflect has so far seen more than 200,000 downloads and 40,000 customers fully onboarded. The bank also launched Arabi Next — the first banking app aimed at the country’s small- and medium-sized enterprise community — in June 2022, offering features including self-registration for companies and the ability to view company accounts with enhanced dashboarding features.Arab Bank also introduced a series of new features to its Arabi Mobile app, including a buy now, pay later facility; an instant loan service; and a bancassurance simulator allowing customers to create their own simulations for a variety of products, such as education saving plans, retirement saving plans and term life insurance policies.The bank’s finances saw an improvement in 2021 following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, with profits rising by 61% for the year. Tier 1 capital, which slipped in 2020, grew by 19% in 2021, with assets increasing by 17%, boosted by the finalisation of Omani subsidiary Oman Arab Bank’s acquisition of Alizz Islamic Bank. Customer deposits grew by 22% to reach $47.1bn, while loans grew by 30%, to reach $34.6bn.Return on assets improved from 2.1% to 3.0%, but remains significantly lower than the pre-pandemic figure of 9.3%. The cost-to-income ratio rose from 47.1% to 49.4%, while the rate of non-performing loans dropped from 6.8% to 6.3%. Kuwait National Bank of KuwaitIn 2020, Kuwait experienced its deepest recession since the Iraqi invasion of 1990, as the economy reeled from the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns and a collapse in oil prices. Two years later, resurgent oil prices have given the country some respite, even as political paralysis continues to hold up vital economic reforms.In one of the Middle East’s most contested categories, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has risen to the top as the country’s Bank of the Year for 2022, in recognition of its improved financial performance, sustainable financing framework and the launch of new digital bank Weyay.“The operating environment has gone through a period of rapid changes and has been impacted by economic recovery, higher consumer spending and rising interest rates,” says Salah Y Al-Fulaij, NBK’s CEO for Kuwait. “Nonetheless, we stayed the course and continued to follow the main pillars of our strategy, thanks to our flexible business model, our solid financial position and our focus on core banking activities.”The bank launched its sustainable financing framework in March 2022, in a bid to enable and promote responsible business practices to help steer the Kuwaiti economy towards long-term value creation, as well as supporting the country’s National Adaptation Plan addressing climate change. The framework is aligned with the green bond principles, social bond principles and sustainability bond guidelines published in June 2021 by the International Capital Market Association.“All our sustainability plans are designed to achieve business growth and maintain our leading position in the local market,” says Mr Al-Fulaij. “In doing so, we continue to invest heavily in enhancing our technological infrastructure and improve our digital channels to attract and retain new customers, with special focus on the youth segment.” Oman AhlibankIn a highly competitive category, Ahlibank has been named Bank of the Year for Oman, with the judges highly impressed by the bank’s digital innovation programme.Ahlibank’s ‘Tamkeen’ peer-to-peer crowd-funding initiative is one of the stand-out achievements in the digital realm during the review period. The initiative, launched in June 2022 in conjunction with Beehive, is aimed at supporting the country’s burgeoning small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector (which grew by nearly 50% during the year), with cutting-edge digital lending solutions, a shorter processing time and a competitive pricing structure.With SME funding often difficult to come by, Tamkeen is designed to narrow this funding gap by enabling entities to access financial packages ranging between OR20,000 ($52,000) and OR80,000. Funding comes from a selection of investors including Ahlibank itself, local non-banking financing institutions, regional multilateral organisations, high-net-worth individuals and retail investors via a fully digital platform.Another highlight was the launch in November 2021 of a new app for the bank’s Ahli Islamic window, offering digital onboarding and account opening in less than 90 seconds. Since the app’s launch, more than 80% of Ahli Islamic new accounts have been opened digitally, generating over OR15m of revenue in six months.“We always strive to meet and surpass the demands and expectations of our expanding customer base through research into and application of global industry trends,” says Ahlibank CEO, Said Abdullah Al Hatmi.“The worldwide shift toward digitalisation has been a major force behind Ahlibank’s transformation, enabling us to enhance our services and therefore establish a new benchmark for banking in the country.” Palestine Bank of PalestineBank of Palestine (BoP) claims the Bank of the Year award for Palestine, thanks in no small part to its impressive financial performance during challenging circumstances.The territory’s largest lender by assets, BoP’s finances rebounded strongly in 2021 after a year beset by Covid-19 and other challenges. The bank reported a 151% growth in profits for 2021, with return on equity rising to 11.29%, comfortably above pre-pandemic levels. Tier 1 capital and assets grew by 14% and 12% respectively, with both non-performing loans and costs lower than 2019.“BoP has focused on the real economy, modernisation, financial inclusion and sustainability, which have played an essential role in setting out our business strategy,” says BoP’s CEO Mahmoud Shawa. “With the market dynamics and favourable demographics, we see huge potential for onboarding new clients whether they are youth (75% of our population are under the age of 34), small- and medium-sized enterprises (constituting 90% of the economy), women, start-ups or diaspora Palestinians.”Sustainability was a key priority during the review period, with the bank joining the Global Impact Investing Network during the first half of 2022. January 2022 saw the signing of the Sunref II Green Programme in conjunction with the EU and Proparco, a French development finance institution. The programme, consisting of a $30m Proparco credit facility, is aimed at boosting the Palestinian economy, supporting sustainable green investment and Covid-19 economic recovery.On the product side, the bank launched a services bundle aimed at female Palestinian entrepreneurs in May 2022, with tailored offerings for small businesses at different stages of maturity. The bundles allow businesswomen and entrepreneurs to access privileged banking products and services, alongside a non-financial advisory service to assist women in managing their business financially and promote their integration in the Palestinian economy. Qatar Commercial BankDespite strong competition from larger domestic rivals, Commercial Bank has been named as this year’s Bank of the Year for Qatar, thanks to a combination of strong finances and innovative digital strategies.One of the key initiatives that impressed the judges was the bank’s use of TikTok as a means of engaging with a younger customer base. In response to a study indicating that Middle Eastern millennials prefer to manage finances on their own rather than seek help directly, Commercial Bank has begun to offer tailored financial guidance via TikTok. One of the bank’s most popular series is ‘Rashed’s Financial Tips’, presented weekly by branch area manager Rashed Al Boainain.The use of TikTok coincides with an impressive increase in the use of digital channels across the board for Commercial Bank in 2021, with active digital users increasing by 15%, and a 30% increase in business owners and decision-makers using the bank’s mobile solutions to approve transactions. Within the bank’s transaction banking arm, 90% of payments, 99% of salaries and 93% of trade transactions are now conducted digitally.On the financial side, profitability recovered to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels in 2021, with return on equity increasing from 5.9% in 2020 to 10% in 2021. While non-performing loans inched up during the year, the banks cost-to-income ratio improved from 26% to 24.1%. Tier 1 capital and assets grew by 2.7% and 7.7%, respectively, during the year.“Commercial Bank remains committed to its strategy of client experience and digital innovation and creativity based on a sound compliance foundation,” says Joseph Abraham, Commercial Bank of Qatar’s group CEO. “We are working to strengthen the bank’s environmental, social and governance credentials, and support the economic development of Qatar as part of the National Vision 2030.” Saudi Arabia Saudi National BankFor the second year in a row, Saudi National Bank (SNB), the Middle East’s largest lender by Tier 1 capital, is the winner of the Bank of the Year award for Saudi Arabia, in recognition of the bank’s digitisation efforts and strong financial performance.In the wake of SNB’s creation in 2021, via the coming together of National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group, the bank has made significant progress on the digitisation of its integrated operations. Digital penetration grew to 79% in 2021, while digital transaction migration reached 99%.On the sales front, SNB established a robust acquisition engine delivering a significant digital contribution in account opening, resulting in 88% of accounts being opened digitally in 2021. The bank further empowered clients with seamless digital sales capabilities, which contributed to 62% of total retail sales being made digitallyIn wholesale, continued investment in the bank’s eCorp and eTrade platforms further empowered customers with advanced product capabilities and instant fulfilment of services. Digital adoption rose, with financial transaction migration reaching 98% and digital account-opening penetration reaching 51% of the total. The point-of-sale (POS) network further expanded to total 213,776 terminals, taking SNB’s POS market share to more than 21%.The bank’s retail arm continues to benefit from strong growth in the Saudi mortgage market. Residential financing reached SR118.5bn ($31.51bn) at end 2021, with net financing increasing by 27%.Return on equity slipped for the year following the merger, even as net profits rose by 10.7% in 2021. Cost-to-income increased from 30.8% to 32.2% because of the merger, while non-performing loans remain low and on a downward trajectory.The bank’s strategic imperatives for the coming years include growing financing and profitability, maintaining cost and risk discipline, and unlocking further merger benefits. UAE Abu Dhabi Islamic BankIn the highly competitive market of the UAE, the Middle East’s second-largest economy after Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has prevailed to be named the country’s Bank of the Year for 2022.The judges were particularly impressed by ADIB’s launch of its Amwali neobank in August 2021. Devised in collaboration with UAE-based entrepreneurship group the Founders Club, Amwali is targeted squarely at Generation Z, offering a suite of banking products and innovative technology to enable younger customers to enjoy a whole new way of banking that is paperless, branchless and signature-free.Amwali offers a dedicated digital banking experience, access to financial knowledge and personalised offers that fit the customer’s lifestyle, all with appropriate parental controls. ADIB opened 7400 accounts via Amwali by the end of 2021.Amwali’s launch is one example of the increased digitisation across ADIB’s operations. The bank’s main app has been downloaded by nearly 90% of its customer base, with the app handling more than two million transactions per month. The bank recorded 64% digital usage for the maintenance of current accounts, with 29% of all current accounts opened digitally.Digital finance applications are increasing steadily, with 36% of personal finance applications taking place digitally, while the ADIB received and processed 95% of payment fund transfer requests through straight-through processing.ADIB recorded an improvement in its finances in 2021, even as profitability fell short of pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. Assets increased by 7% to Dh136.9bn ($37.27bn). Costs decreased significantly for the year, with cost-to-income improving from 45.7% to 40.7%. Non-performing loans declined from 19.4% to 8.9%, well below the pre-pandemic level of 17.9%.
Bank of the Year Awards 2022 — Western Europe
Western Europe’s top lenders from 2022 Andorra Crèdit Andorrà Financial GroupCrèdit Andorrà Financial Group has shown its continued ambitions with a pair of strategic acquisitions over the past year, as well as posting strong financial results in 2021, making it a clear winner for Andorran Bank of the Year.In 2022, Crèdit Andorrà finalised its acquisition of Vall Banc, which will reinforce its growth strategy and help it become more competitive in the private banking space, as well as strengthen its long-standing commitment to the country’s economic and social progress. The acquisition represents a significant boost for the bank, which is targeting recurring profits of €40m and was financed entirely by its own funds.Creand Wealth Management, the group’s private banking subsidiary in Spain, also acquired GBS Finanzas Investcapital, a securities firm specialising in high-net-worth advisory and family offices, with Creand Wealth Management now having a business volume of €3.2bn — up from €2.48bn at end of 2021. As a result of these two acquisitions, as well as organic growth, the bank has increased its overall business volume to around €24bn — far above its strategic plan for the period. Crèdit Andorrà is also setting up a new family office division.The bank recovered well from the Covid-19 pandemic, with profits up 9.8% in 2021 and assets growing by 5.1%. Its cost-to-income ratio ticked up slightly, to 68.12%, with non-performing loans down from 7.45% in 2019 to 6.22%. “Our strategy is underpinned by results,” says Xavier Cornella, CEO of Crèdit Andorrà Financial Group. “We consolidated our commitment to service capacity, specialisation and synergies that strengthen customer relations while offering a robust, personalised and independent value proposition. Sustained organic growth, through careful and responsible management and corporate integrations, strengthened our Andorran leadership and our presence in private banking and asset management in Andorra and Spain.” Austria Raiffeisen Bank InternationalWhile Austria’s banking sector struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic, Austrian banks came roaring back in 2021, benefitting from improved economic conditions and the impact of digital transformation efforts.The winner of our 2022 country award, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), saw its net profits grow 65.7% in 2021, after profits fell by 33.3% in 2020. Its total assets are up 15.8%, including a 7.8% rise in Tier 1 capital. RBI’s non-performing exposure, including loans and debt securities, has also ticked steadily downwards in recent years, from 2.1% in 2019 to 1.6% in 2021.The bank has continued to work impressively on furthering its digital footprint, pushing forward with its adoption of cloud-based solutions. Starting in 2020, RBI defined its cloud strategy, with the goal of having 100% of new applications built on the cloud, or at least cloud-ready, as well as between 30% and 50% of IT staff trained on the cloud, and more than 50% of applications moved to the cloud.Meanwhile, in April 2022, RBI launched a new trade finance front-end called eTradeOn, allowing clients to easily request and manage bank guarantees online. Through this, the bank has been able to increase the number of new transactions via its digital channels from 15% to more than 20% in the first quarter of 2022 alone, with a target of 30% by year-end 2023 — something it says it is well on the way to achieving.In April 2022, RBI’s Serbian subsidiary also completed the acquisition of 100% of Crédit Agricole Srbija, a leader in the field of agricultural business financing, with Serbia being seen as an attractive growth market for the banking group. A merger between the two operations is ongoing, with the expectation that the joint organisation will be able to grow its client base and enlarge its offerings, with RBI ultimately targeting a top-three position in the country’s financial services sector. Belgium KBC BankKBC Bank, the winner of Belgium’s Bank of the Year for 2022, has had a resoundingly successful year, with net profits for the bank growing by 185.6% year on year, after decreasing by 30.2% in 2020. Total assets are up 7% and non-performing loans down from 2.4% in 2020 to 2.2% in 2021.However, it is not just the headline numbers that helped the bank take this year’s coveted award, but also its development of innovative banking solutions. Among the bank’s strategic initiatives has been the launch of Kate, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based conversational assistant. The technology has already outperformed the bank’s targets in terms of the number of users, number of interactions, and in its ability to comprehend questions and effectively solve them. As of June 2022, more than 1.8 million conversations have taken place with KBC Bank’s customers via Kate, with the platform accurately understanding customer questions in 78.3% of instances, according to the bank.At the same time, KBC Group has, through its subsidiary Discai, moved to commercialise its in-house AI applications, to improve and help other financial institutions keep up with fast-changing technological and regulatory developments.“The Covid-19 crisis has given our digital applications, which were already hugely popular, an extra boost,” says KBC Bank’s executive director David Moucheron. “Our KBC Mobile app, voted as one of the best banking apps in the world, has seen the addition of our AI-powered digital assistant Kate, who is getting more efficient by the day.“While we continue to invest in our digital ecosystem, the human touch remains an essential element in our customer service. We believe in a healthy balance between the practical efficiency of our digital apps and the warmth of personal service in our branches.” Cyprus Bank of CyprusIt has been a positive year for Bank of Cyprus, the largest financial group in Cyprus and the Mediterranean country’s Bank of the Year for 2022. Assets grew by 16% in 2021, after a modest growth of 1.85% in 2020, and the bank returned to profitability. After losing €171m in 2020, the lender recorded net profits of €30m in 2021, and in the first quarter of 2022 saw profits of €21m, compared to net profits of just €8m in the first quarter of 2021. At the same time, it announced a record €618m in new loans and a further reduction in its non-performing loan exposure.But, it is not just about the numbers. Bank of Cyprus has launched a new digital economy platform, Jinius, which enables the interconnection of the entire financial market in a single digital environment. Since January 2021, several new features and design updates have been implemented on the bank’s mobile app, with the bank introducing app-based car and home insurance purchases; ‘MoneyFit’, a new feature released in March 2022 that provides customers with actionable insights about their financial wellbeing; and mobile cheque deposits.As part of the bank’s environmental, social and governance strategy, it also launched three environmentally friendly personal loans in September 2021, offering favourable loans specifically for hybrid or electric cars, environmentally friendly home renovations and energy upgrades.“Digitalisation is a major trend that we have integrated into our business strategy, which is enabling us to increase efficiency and to improve customer service,” says Panicos Nicolaou, CEO of Bank of Cyprus. “We are focused on delivering for our customers, our investors, our employees and the Cypriot economy.“With the restructuring completed, sustainable profitability is key to our future plans,” he adds. “We are targeting a return on tangible equity of over 10% in 2023 and meaningful dividends from 2023 onwards, subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions.” Finland OP Financial GroupAfter seeing moderate growth in its Tier 1 capital position and overall assets over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, OP Financial Group saw significant growth in 2021, with Tier 1 capital rising 5.6% and assets up 8.7%. At the same time, the bank’s net profit levels grew by 41% in 2021, after falling by 4.3% in 2020 and 10.3% in 2019.Since January 2021, OP has pushed through with a major overhaul of its payments business, including substantial investments in payment platforms, technology, reorganisations and renewal of core processes related to payments. One key result of this is that the bank is now able to provide real-time payments to its customers through SEPA Instant Payments, which has resulted in OP’s real-time payment volume being one of the highest in Europe in 2021.The lender has also made significant investments in P27 Nordic Payments, a strategic joint initiative by the region’s banks that is set to launch in the coming years and aims to integrate payment regions in multiple currencies in the Nordics.In 2021, ‘responsible business’ was added as one of the group’s strategic priorities, with the bank aiming to be a forerunner in corporate responsibility within its sector in Finland. The bank also launched Finland’s first-ever green covered bond collateralised by real estate last year.“To maintain our strong financial performance and leading market position, we want to create even more value for our customers by excellent customer service and high-class processes,” says Timo Ritakallio, OP’s CEO.The bank also continues to play an important role in raising financial literacy levels across Finland, through school visits, open days and online sessions. More than 20,000 ninth grade students participated in OP’s annual economic know-how competition last year, with the bank launching a guidebook for its senior customers to support their non-digital customer journey. France Société GénéraleIn 2021 Société Générale (SocGen) posted its best operating results in the group’s history, with net income of €5.6bn and profitability of 10%. The bank saw revenue rise by 16% compared to 2020, building on robust growth in all of its business lines, and while Tier 1 capital growth fell slightly to 3.08%, overall asset growth increased to 3.27%, up from 1.98% in 2020.At the same time, its retail banking side is undergoing profound changes, with the announced merger of its French brick-and-mortar banking networks, SocGen and Crédit du Nord, in order to create a new retail bank rooted in local communities, and combining human and digital expertise. This is part of SocGen’s Vision 2025.Officially launched in October 2021, the initial phases of Vision 2025 have seen a focus on merging IT networks and staff training. The move is expected to lead to substantial cost synergies, with a goal of reducing the bank’s cost base by around €450m by 2025, compared to 2019 figures, and a reduction in headcount of 3700 jobs, down to 25,000, based on natural departures. Since 2017, SocGen has also adopted a cloud-first strategy, and by the start of 2021 the strategy had resulted in 80% of the group’s IT infrastructure being transferred to the cloud, making the bank a leader in the industry.SocGen is also supporting the energy transition, having contributed more than €150bn in financing since 2019, and making a new commitment of €300bn in sustainable finance between 2022 and 2025.“In an increasingly complex geopolitical and economic environment, we have successfully simplified and strengthened the resilience of our business model, transformed our businesses to support the changing needs of our customers and the far-reaching transformations around digital technologies and ESG, and invested in a targeted manner in businesses with strong growth potential,” says Frédéric Oudéa, CEO of SocGen. Germany CommerzbankGermany’s economy suffered deeply as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the country is looking at a worrying 2023, given the war in Ukraine. This has put pressure on German banks, including our 2022 winner, Commerzbank, which has stepped up to offer support to the wider economy.The bank reported a net profit and retained a strong common equity Tier 1 ratio of 13.6% for the 2021 financial year, while reducing its number of branches from around 800 to 450 as of June 2022. This was part of the planned optimisation of the branch network and a streamlining of its international network, aided by the expansion of digital services. Last year also saw the launch of Commerzbank’s ‘Strategy 2024’ restructuring plan, which is focused on customer centricity, digitalisation, sustainability and profitability.In May 2021, Commerzbank joined with Isbank and LBBW to become one of the first banks to execute commercial transactions with German and Turkish corporate clients via the blockchain-based Marco Polo trade finance network in a live environment. That same month, alongside Evonik and BASF, it successfully tested a shared blockchain platform designed to allow ordering and payment processes to be completely automated.“[This year] has seen many challenges, but it’s clear that our Strategy 2024 is working and is also effective in a phase of low economic growth,” says Commerzbank’s CEO Manfred Knof.In the first half of 2022, Commerzbank lead-managed more than 20 green and social bond issuances, with an aggregate volume of more than €20bn, and in 2022 issued its third green bond, with an issuance volume of €500m — the proceeds of which will be used to refinance renewable energy projects. The bank has also committed to reducing the carbon dioxide balance sheet of its entire credit and investment portfolio to net zero by 2050. Greece EurobankEurobank had the best-in-class asset quality in the Greek market in 2021, coupled with the lowest non-performing loan ratio. The bank saw assets grow 15% to €77.9bn year on year, with Tier 1 capital up 3% to €5.8bn and profits of €328.5m. From 2022 onwards, the bank is aiming for a 10% return on tangible equity on a recurring basis, and high single-digit annual earnings per share growth.As part of its ongoing transformation programme, in 2021 Eurobank introduced a new model to the Greek market, the ‘phygital’ service model, through which a customer’s physical interactions with a bank representative is replaced by a digital, multi-channel interaction, centred around one pivotal point, called the “digital safe box”.At the same time, the bank is pushing to strengthen its international presence through a merger of Eurobank Beograd with Direktna Bank in Serbia and the acquisition of a 12.6% stake in Hellenic Bank in Cyprus. This is in line with its strategy to further diversify and strengthen its business in both countries.Eurobank has a unique business model among Greek banks, with a diversified revenue stream that has more than 60% of pre-provision income originating from banking activity in Greece, about 35% from activities from regional lenders and up to 10% from its investment real estate portfolio.“As Greece and our other core markets in south-east Europe enjoy a strong post-pandemic recovery, we focused all our efforts in supporting growth,” says Fokion Karavias, Eurobank’s CEO.In June 2022, Eurobank also concluded the spin-off of its merchant acquiring business to Worldline Greece, along with establishing a long-term commercial partnership to distribute Worldline products in Greece. The move frees up financial resources for Eurobank to focus on core banking innovation, as it looks to a bright future. Iceland Arion BankArion Bank has once again emerged as the winner of the Iceland country award in a highly competitive country category. This was in large part due to its impressive growth over the past two years, as well as the bank’s strong commitment to environmental, social and governance principles.“Sustainability and green finance continue to impact our strategy and how we conduct our business and product development,” says Benedikt Gíslason, CEO of Arion Bank. “Additionally, the Arctic region, of which Iceland is a part, is increasing in importance globally. The region has a huge amount to offer economically, and we are keen to be active participants in the future development of this region.”In 2021, Iceland’s tourism-dependent economy rebounded significantly from the Covid-19 pandemic, growing by 4.4%, compared to a drop of 6.8% in 2020. Arion Bank, meanwhile, saw its return on equity jump from 6.5% in 2020 to 14.7% in 2021, with its cost-to-income ratio continuing to tick down, from 48% in 2020 to 44.4%. Throughout 2021, the bank’s Tier 1 capital ticked up slightly, growing 0.5% after expanding by 10.4% in 2020, while assets grew 14.4% and net profits rose 129.5%.An integral part of the bank’s recent strategy has been to improve offerings to high-net-worth individuals, in part by building on its strengths in asset management and traditional financial services. To meet this need, the bank launched a new service named Arion Premía in May 2021 and within the first year had onboarded 3000 customers — with 5% of them being new to the bank and bringing with them assets worth Ikr3.3bn ($22.9m).The bank has also made a successful entry into the euro covered bond market, finalising a €300m five-year covered bond at the end of September 2021, the first international covered bond from an Icelandic bank. Over the past 18 months, eight Icelandic companies were listed on global stock exchanges, with Arion Bank assisting six of them. Italy Intesa SanpaoloIntesa Sanpaolo has once again shown its ambitions. The bank, which has nine million Italian small and medium-sized enterprise and retail clients, and a network of 1800 dedicated branches, has pushed forward with its growth plans at the same time it has helped pump billions into the economy.As part of Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the lender is providing more than €400bn in new lending to support the domestic economy, including an estimated €150bn for households, community and inclusion, €75bn for green and circular economy and green transition, and €60bn for infrastructure, transportation and urban regeneration.Meanwhile, in its 2022-2025 Business Plan, Intesa Sanpaolo renewed its commitment to being a leading bank for social impact, setting a goal of providing €500m to support people in need, including a project to build up to 8000 social housing units dedicated to young and senior citizens, one of the largest social housing programmes in Italy.“So far, we have allocated €30bn to help households and companies face high energy costs. We are stepping up our many social and climate initiatives,” says Intesa Sanpaolo’s CEO Carlo Messina.The acquisition and integration of fellow Italian lender UBI Banca, which was completed in April 2021, saw Intesa Sanpaolo absorb the fifth-largest bank in Italy in terms of its branch network. At the same time, Intesa Sanpaolo is currently investing heavily in a new digital bank, Isybank, which is expected to initially serve four million customers in Italy who have simpler financial needs and prefer not to use the bank’s physical branches.From 2024, the Isybank model will be expanded internationally, to Intesa Sanpaolo’s main European subsidiary banks and to new customers through partnerships such as a joint venture with Enel, the power utility firm. The digital bank is ultimately expected to generate annual cost savings of €600m by 2025. Liechtenstein LGT BankThe world’s largest private banking and asset management group owned by a single family, LGT Bank, made strong progress in 2021. The bank’s Tier 1 capital increased by 18% in 2021, after growing 9% in 2020, with assets up 6% year-on-year (compared to 1% growth in 2020) and net profits rising 21%.At the same time, between 2020 and 2022, LGT repositioned three of its businesses — LGT Private Banking, LGT Capital Partners and Lightrock, a global impact investing platform — as independent companies, to better enable them to enhance their offerings and provide strong, client-centric services.“One trend we have recognised is strong demand for alternative and impact investments. LGT has extensive expertise in this area that is unique in the market,” says LGT Bank’s CEO Roland Matt. “Together with our sister company Lightrock, we provide access to private equity investments to support sustainable development.”In July 2021, LGT Private Banking successfully completed the acquisition of UBS Europe SE’s wealth management business in Austria. The bank also opened a wealth management office in Tokyo in early 2021, and in May 2022 acquired Crestone Wealth Management, Australia’s leading high-net-worth wealth management firm, giving LGT an important foothold in the Australian wealth management market. LGT has also acquired a minority stake in German digital wealth manager Liqid.LGT’s longstanding commitment to sustainability has continued. Lightrock’s portfolio, which has roughly $3bn of invested capital, includes more than 80 high-growth companies that contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. LGT currently tracks the environmental, social and governance performance of around 9800 companies and 200 countries, translating this data into a sustainability rating that LGT clients can use to align their portfolios with their personal values. Luxembourg Banque et Caisse d’Épargne de l’État (Spuerkeess)Some banks are increasingly standing out for their focus on responsible finance, including our Bank of the Year for Luxembourg, Banque et Caisse d’Épargne de l’État (Spuerkeess).In recent years, Spuerkeess has pushed the boundaries of responsible finance. The bank has firmly positioned environmental, social and governance principles at the heart of its key objectives for its current strategic plan, and has joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance of the UN’s Environment Finance Initiative. In 2021, it launched ‘Activmandate Green’ to help customers switch to more sustainability-linked instruments, and has also collaborated with business partners to advise clients on how to build or renovate their homes more sustainably.At the same time, the bank has continued its digital journey. Spuerkeess continues to make significant updates to its mobile banking application, S-Net, and in 2021 undertook initiatives to better leverage the potential of data. That same year it also launched myTax, allowing clients to digitise their tax declarations without any prior tax knowledge, with the service able to handle even the most complex of tax situations.“The world turns fast. At Spuerkeess we aim to continuously adapt to our clients’ needs and expectations,” says Françoise Thoma, CEO of Spuerkeess. “We want to offer a pleasant digital experience, but we know the key to that is our mobile functionality. In the past year, we have made good progress. Our app S-Net offers multiple tools that help our customers perform their daily banking tasks so they can stay on top of their finances,” he adds.In 2021, Spuerkeess saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 15.5%, after an increase of 9.1% in 2020, with a growth in total assets of 6.4%, compared with 4.9% in 2020. The bank’s net profits also grew by 90.4% year-on-year, after two years of negative growth, while its return on equity ticked up to 7.5%, from 4.2% in 2020. Malta BNF BankIt has been a challenging year for Malta, which was placed on the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list in June 2021 over concerns related to money laundering. This was the first time that an EU member state had been placed on the list. However, the country acted quickly and was removed from the list in August 2022.The episode proved to have a significant impact on the country’s banking sector, with many banks losing their US dollar correspondent capability. BNF Bank, our country winner for 2022, was able to successfully retain and continue to operate both its US dollar and pound sterling correspondent banking relationships, which helped it to record another stellar year.The bank’s financial results for 2021 continued the same growth trajectory that it has experienced in recent years, despite the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2021, the bank’s Tier 1 capital grew by 4.8% and total assets by 11.5%. At the same time, its cost-to-income ratio dropped to 62.9%, with return on equity improving to 9.4%. By end-2021, BNF had surpassed its Ä1bn asset target, effectively doubling the size of its balance sheet in just five years.The bank has also pushed forward with upgrading its internet banking, with the introduction of a mobile app, and is now in the process of updating its core banking system and e-channels, with a view to providing new and improved customer experiences. BNF is also on course to become the first systemic bank in Malta to operate its core banking system-as-a-service using cloud technology. “The key driver in our industry for the foreseeable future is technology,” says BNF Bank’s CEO Michael Collis. “Digitisation of services is at the core of our strategy, although in a tight-knit communitylike Malta, our branch network will always be crucial.” Netherlands ING BankWhile close to a hundred credit institutions operate in the Netherlands, major players like ING continue to dominate in what is a highly mature and innovative market.ING, our country winner for 2022, has maintained its leading position as a pioneer in the field of sustainability-linked finance, five years after launching its first sustainability-linked loan. The bank recently closed deals in both sustainable supply chain finance and sustainability-linked receivables financing, and has strongly advocated for business-related sustainability targets to become the standard.“The evolution of the market has been nothing short of amazing. Not only are the growth figures impressive, but also the broadening of the sustainability-linked financing concept to now include bonds, interest rate swaps and supply chain finance. It has really become a movement,” says Roland Mees, director of sustainable finance at ING.It is not just its approach to sustainability-linked finance that makes ING stand out. In recent years, the bank has developed a strong, customer-centric global communication platform to better enable contact between customers and bankers, strengthening the human touch, despite the increasing switch to digital-first solutions. The platform was rolled out in the Netherlands in 2018, followed by Belgium, Spain and Germany, with continual improvements.ING has also created a range of seven sustainable, globally diversified funds, complete with a fully digital advisory journey, as part of efforts to democratise access to investment advice and offer a range of options, with more than 50,000 customers onboarded.When it comes to its own financial metrics, in 2021 ING saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 6.8%, while total assets grew by a more modest 1.5%. At the same time, the bank’s net profits rebounded strongly; after almost halving in 2020, net profits grew by 92.2% year on year in 2021, with the bank’s return on equity almost doubling, from 4.8% to 9.2%, offering a strong position to build on. Portugal Banco BPIThe Portuguese economy contracted sharply in 2020, falling by 8.4% as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the country bounced back strongly in 2021, recording growth of 4.9%, with the government forecasting a gross domestic product rise of 6.4% for 2022, despite the global economic challenges.Banco BPI, our winner for Bank of the Year in Portugal, has capitalised on this economic growth, with its net assets rising by 12.7% year on year in 2021, and net profits up almost 200%. The bank, which is owned by CaixaBank, had consolidated net profit of €307m in 2021, compared with €105m in 2020, with a recurring net profit in Portugal of €200m, up from Ä84m in 2020. It is now Portugal’s fourth-largest bank, with total assets of €41.4bn, and the lowest non-performing loan ratio in Portugal.“The recent years created a sense of urgency that accelerated the pace of digital transformation, labour policies flexibility and sustainability transition,” says BPI CEO João Pedro Oliveira e Costa.BPI has recently launched a new mortgage simulator, which allows clients to obtain a provisional analysis quickly and easily, based on their own data, in relation to loan applications, as well as a digital brokerage service that allows investors to trade online as if they were in a trading room.Meanwhile, as part of its 2022/24 sustainability plan, Banco BPI aims to achieve €4bn in sustainable turnover, with €2bn in sustainable financing through the promotion of environmental, social and governance (ESG) products, advice and training to support companies. One notable new product is BPI ESG Empresas, a €500m funding line with ESG criteria to support the transition for small and medium-sized enterprises.In 2021, BPI also participated as an advisor on some of the most important sustainable finance operations in Portugal, underwriting or placing more than €300m. The bank is also targeting better gender diversity, with 43% women in management positions by 2024. Spain BBVA SpainSpain’s award was once again a highly competitive country category, with the winner – BBVA Spain – edging out its rivals thanks to its impressive digital innovations and successes throughout the turbulence of the Covid-19 pandemic.In recent years, BBVA Spain has undergone a profound transformation in its relationship with its customers, towards a more ‘do-it-yourself’ and remote model. In 2021, it became the first bank to offer Spanish customers the possibility of using fingerprint or facial recognition to sign transactions through its app. Further afield, it also launched a fully digital bank in Italy in 2021, leveraging the technology of its app in Spain.BBVA has been on a strong green drive; when it comes to its commercial business almost 30% of investment is already being channelled towards green or sustainable projects or initiatives. Furthermore, the lender has pledged €200bn in sustainable funding through 2025, doubling its initial €100bn target announced in February 2018. To help customers understand their carbon footprint, in 2021 it launched a digital calculator – available for both individuals and enterprise customers – which automatically collects data from customers’ bills, distinguishing their energy costs and calculating their equivalent carbon dioxide emissions.Also in 2021, it launched BBVA Pivot, a new digital brand for cross-border enterprises that require enterprise to enterprise global solutions to cover their advanced treasury and liquidity needs. And with increasing concerns over the rising cost of living, last year the bank rolled out its core set of digital tools for personal finance management across the Spanish market, as well as in Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Turkey.“This distinction is an acknowledgement of our efforts to achieve one of BBVA’s strategic priorities: improving our customers’ financial health through tools and technology,” says Peio Belausteguigoitia, country manager for BBVA Spain. Turkey Türkiye Is BankasıIt is fair to say that rapid digitalisation in the financial services sector has changed customers’ and employees’ expectations across the world. For legacy lenders this switch can prove challenging. Türkiye Is Bankası (Isbank), which will celebrate its centenary in 2024 and is our Bank of the Year for Turkey, has shown itself to be highly adaptive.The lender prides itself on being a pioneer of the Turkish banking sector, having set up the first ATM in the country, the first internet branch and the first mobile banking app, IsCep. Mobile now constitutes 75% of the bank’s total comparable transactions, and digital across-the-board 95.6%. At the same time, the share of general-purpose consumer loans which are extended via digital channels is now at more than 90%.Isbank has rolled out its ‘Bank of the Future’ vision, with the aim to create an inclusive and participatory approach with digitalisation at the core of its strategic initiatives. In August 2021, it launched Forest for the Future, designed as a unique tool in the Turkish banking sector that enables users to gain points according to carbon footprint’s reduction, which result in the bank planting tree saplings in their name (with a certificate sent through IsCep).The bank has also launched a sustainable agriculture tool, ImeceMobil, which provides 24/7 support for farmers when it comes to reducing costs, providing agricultural information, and enables them to sell their products at the optimum price, among other things.“Our business strategy is fuelled by our main vision to create sustainable value with an inclusive and participatory approach,” says Hakan Aran, CEO of Isbank. “The economic challenges from the [Covid-19] pandemic and the negative impacts of climate change were being deeply felt around the world, requiring an inclusive, just and environmentally-friendly transition. We have been committed to building an inclusive economy that cares about the well-being of all parts of society.” UK Lloyds Banking GroupIt is fair to say that the UK has been a challenging market over the past year or so, with little sign that things will change anytime soon. Given this reality, it makes sense that our Bank of the Year winner, Lloyds Banking Group, consistently matched outstanding levels of innovation with impressive attention to detail, especially when it comes to customer service.In 2021, the bank saw total assets grow by 2%, to £886.6bn, with profits up 324% year-on-year and a return on equity of 13.8%, compared with 2.3% in 2020.In June 2021 Lloyds Bank, along with Halifax and Bank of Scotland, launched a subscription management tool, aimed at allowing customers to view the payment date and amount, or cancel the payment without needing to contact the subscription provider, all through their mobile banking app. This is likely to prove extremely valuable in the current period of cost-of-living pressures. In the first year, 2.2 million customers used the service.In January 2022 the bank also completed the acquisition of Embark Group, an investment platform and retirement solutions provider. The move will help fill a missing piece in its wealth management function, with an execution-only service to better tap into the growing mass affluent market.“We have an ambitious strategy to transform our business, achieve a significant shift towards revenue growth and diversification, and to deliver higher, more sustainable returns,” says Charlie Nunn, CEO of Lloyds Banking Group.The group aims to play to its strengths, including being the sole integrated provider of banking, insurance and wealth in the UK. It plans to invest £4bn over the next five years, targeting additional revenues from strategic initiatives, while committing to keeping operating costs flat in 2024, compared to 2022 levels. Ultimately, the bank is targeting a return on tangible equity of 12% by 2026.
Bank of the Year Awards 2022 — Central and eastern Europe
CEE’s top lenders from 2022 Albania OTP Bank AlbaniaAlbania struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country’s economy contracting by 3.5% in 2020. However, in 2021 the country’s real gross domestic product bounced back, growing by 8.5%.The winner of the Albania country award for 2022, OTP Bank Albania, has exemplified the drive to grow and develop. The bank saw its Tier 1 capital, as well as total assets, grow by 19% in 2021, with annual net profits up from 8% in 2020 to 26% in 2021. The bank also had the highest return on equity in the Albanian banking sector, at 18.5%.Earlier this year, OTP Group completed the acquisition of Alpha Bank Albania, with the Albanian operation of OTP Group now set to become the fifth-largest bank in the country in terms of total assets and the third-largest in terms of customer loans. It is an exciting time for the bank, with the coming period set to see OTP Bank Albania push forward with the integration process, while also continuing the momentum of the past few years.Since our last awards, OTP Albania has launched its first batch of online banking upgrades, providing a more advanced online platform for both business and individual customers. A second batch is in the works, which will expand the number of digital offerings, including QR Code invoice payments, digital signature and card management.At the end of 2021, OTP Albania also became the first and, so far, only bank in Albania to introduce automatic services for foreign exchange transactions. The bank has now begun implementing another important project — a loan origination tool that will enable loan flow management, end-to-end, in a digital environment, and has also launched strategies related to the agriculture segment and home purchase loans.As another marker of its growing importance in the country, OTP Bank Albania was also chosen as the joint lead manager for Albania’s recent 10-year eurobond issuance. Armenia AmeriabankAmeriabank is playing a leading role in addressing climate change and other environmental issues in Armenia. In 2020, the bank developed its Green Bond Framework, with its debut green bond issuance and placement, the first-ever green bond in Armenia, worth $50m. In 2021, the bank also signed a $20m loan agreements with responsAbility Investments and the Global Climate Partnership Fund to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and green projects in Armenia. A further $30m was announced in November 2021, from the Opec Fund for International Development, to support sustainable energy and SMEs in the country. Overall, Ameriabank aims to double the share of green loans in its portfolio by 2023.At the same time, Ameriabank’s mortgage loans portfolio has been growing fast, with a compound annual growth rate of 46% over the past three years and a market-leading share of 21%. The bank’s Tier 1 capital grew by 7.2% in 2021, while net profits grew 115.7%, after advancing by just 25.7% in 2020.Digital transformation of the SME and retail segments have been two of the key strategic directions for Ameriabank in recent years. Last year saw the bank launch a comprehensive digital ecosystem, which currently covers the car market, housing market and e-commerce. It has also launched the first and only online platform for SME customers in the country, intended to serve as a one-stop shop for their needs.“Our sound corporate governance, change-adaptive culture and digital transformation were key to successfully navigating the market turbulence and adapting to the progressively growing needs of digitally native customers,” says Artak Hanesyan, CEO of Ameriabank. “We will continue investments in digital transformation and human capital to enhance our operational efficiency and innovate in order to become a trusted financial technology space serving people and businesses with seamless solutions to improve the quality of life.” Azerbaijan ABB BankAfter seeing its economy dip in 2020, Azerbaijan’s economic fortunes improved notably in 2021, with oil and gas prices strengthening the sovereign balance sheet and the non-energy sector driving gross domestic product growth.Meanwhile, the International Bank of Azerbaijan, recently rebranded as ABB and our country winner for 2022, has continued to strengthen its capital position, while also embarking on several important initiatives in areas such as digital banking and IT training for young professionals.The launch of the ABB Tech Academy, at the end of 2019, has shown the bank’s continued commitment to the country’s future, with the academy providing immersive bootcamp programmes aimed at developing the Azerbaijani tech sector and cultivating new generations of IT professionals in a range of fields, such as back- and front-end web and mobile development, cyber security and machine learning. Meanwhile, the ABB Innovation Centre, a corporate innovation programme, has established itself as an important incubator for early-stage start-ups looking to turn their ideas into businesses, with its third incubator programme set to launch later this year. To date, the innovation centre has presented 22 start-ups to potential investors.The bank has also launched a loyalty programme, Fayda, through which users are able to gain bonuses as a result of various payments through ABB’s mobile app. In November 2021, the lender began offering ABB cardholders the opportunity to use Apple Pay for some of their transactions.On the financial side, ABB’s total assets grew by 21.7% in 2021, despite Tier 1 capital remaining flat and profits recording negative growth. At the same time, the bank’s return on equity improved from 10.6% in 2020 to 12.4% in 2021, with non-performing loans dropping from 7.7% to 4.2% year on year. Bosnia and Herzegovina UniCredit Bank dd MostarBosnia and Herzegovina was strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country’s economy contracting by an estimated 4.7% of gross domestic product in 2020, before jumping 5.8% in 2021, according to the International Monetary Fund.Banks in the country, such as UniCredit Bank dd Mostar, our country winner for 2022, have had to navigate this difficult climate. Many have done so with extraordinary success.UniCredit Bank dd Mostar’s total assets grew by 3.2% year on year in 2021, with profits up 18.7% and return on equity rising from 8.4% in 2020 to 10.4% in 2021. At the same time, total loans from the bank to legal entities increased by 1.8% compared to the previous year, confirming UniCredit’s position as a leading player when it comes to financing government and private companies in Croatia; in 2021 the bank approved more corporate loans than it did in 2019, pre-pandemic. The bank’s ratio of net loans to deposits, meanwhile, was 60.6% in 2021, with a capital adequacy ratio of 20.9%.UniCredit Bank dd Mostar has increasingly embraced robotic process automation, and has now automated areas such as client risk data collection for its corporate credit applications and generating process documentation for loans for legal entities. Its new Digitalisation Plan, meanwhile, includes several initiatives to transform and maximise productivity, with a convergence of online and offline channels and transactions continuing to migrate to direct channels, aided by the implementation of further digital advances. These include areas such as card limit approval processes in its consumer finance applications, which enable loan products to be processed via a single tool.Since the beginning of 2021, UniCredit Bank dd Mostar has also introduced EMV 3D Secure biometric authentication, the first bank in the country to do this, with a strong focus now on increasing the number of internet stores that provide the possibility of card payments utilising UniCredit Bank’s services. Bulgaria DSK BankThe Covid-19 pandemic hit Bulgaria hard, but 2021 saw a strong rebound, with gross domestic product growth up by 4.2% in 2021, after contracting by a similar amount in 2020. Meanwhile, total assets in the Bulgarian banking sector grew by 9.2% in 2021, with the sector showing its resilience and adaptability.The winner of the Bulgaria country award, DSK Bank, has exemplified these trends. The bank saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 8.7% in 2021 and total assets rise by 7%, with net profits jumping from negative growth to a rise of 76.7% year on year. The bank’s return on equity also ticked up from 6.4% in 2020 to 11.6% in 2021 (and 19.4% in the first quarter of 2022), with its cost-to-income ratio down from 46.3% in 2019 to 31% in the first quarter of this year.In 2021, DSK Bank launched a strategic programme for digitalisation, with the main objective to provide high-quality online and mobile banking services. DSK Bank’s online and mobile banking penetration is now one of the highest in the Bulgarian market, with its online banking platform, DSK Direct, having more than 1.3 million registered customers.One of the bank’s main objectives has been to develop and implement smart solutions and innovative projects aimed at improving the urban environment, as well as increasing the penetration of cashless payments. With its subsidiary DSK Mobile, in 2021 the bank introduced a service for purchasing bus, trolleybus, tram or metro tickets directly using debit or credit cards, or mobile NFC wallets, which had a penetration rate of 45% within its first year of operations.In 2021, DSK Bank also launched Multibanking, an innovative service that allows DSK Bank clients to register their accounts with other banks and receive information about their balances, transactions and to-order payments. Croatia Erste Bank CroatiaLike its parent company, Erste Bank Croatia, our country winner for Croatia, has strong ambitions and posted some impressive growth figures for 2021. The Croatian bank saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 5.5% in 2021, with total assets up 11.9% and the bank’s return on equity more than doubling year on year to 9.76%, though still down on 2019 figures.The bank’s online banking platform, George, which has been built as an open banking platform that allows third-party applications, has also continued to see positive trends, with 388,000 users as of June 2022 — up 13.5% from the end of 2021 alone.In 2022, Erste Bank launched its Financial Health Tool, a free tool designed to support corporate clients in reaching a healthier financial balance by giving them access to transparent and understandable information about their current financial situations. These include current and historical credit ratings, their financial performance compared to other relevant companies within their industry, as well as the development of key financial indicators over time. After a gradual rollout, the tool was fully released to approximately 1300 corporate clients in May 2022.Over the past year, Erste Bank Croatia has, together with utility companies in more than 30 cities, enabled citizens to receive digital bills and pay them free of fees by using the bank’s KEKS Pay mobile app, regardless of which bank they have an account with, as part of efforts to simplify payments for everyone in the country.In June 2021, Erste Bank Croatia also became the first lender in the country to successfully carry out its own bond issue on the international capital market, with a value of €400m, further cementing its place as a market leader in the country. The funds raised have gone towards stimulating green and sustainable investments in Croatia. Czechia RaiffeisenbankDespite the significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Raiffeisenbank has strengthened its position in the Czech market in recent years. The bank’s Tier 1 capital grew by 22% in 2021, with total assets up 24% and profits rising 119% year on year, reversing a decline in profit growth in 2020. The bank’s return on equity almost doubled to 15% in 2021.Since the beginning of 2021, Raiffeisenbank’s Czech operation has focused on three major integration projects: the long-term restructuring of Czech Raiffeisen building savings company, after RBCZ became its 100% shareholder, completed in late 2021; the takeover of ING’s retail portfolio; and the integration of Equa bank, the country’s leading challenger bank with more than 500,000 clients. This latter acquisition, announced in February 2021, has helped to make Raiffeisenbank the fourth-largest bank in the country.Each of these deals has come with challenges, but combined the mergers have strengthened the bank’s operations and its future potential. The bank also launched a new mobile application in September 2021, continuing a digital journey that has seen up to 95% of client requests being able to be handled via the internet and mobile banking. The most recent innovation offered by the bank is the interconnection of the banking world with the world of business and accounting systems, using premium application programming interface services.“Despite the unexpected complications associated with the conflict in Ukraine, we will continue to pursue a long-term strategy aimed at clients’ satisfaction and an increase in the number of clients,” says Igor Vida, Raiffeisenbank Czech Republic’s CEO and chairman of the board.“This strategy is primarily based on simple, client-attractive and free-of-charge products and services that make life easier for clients, and stable growth in receivables with a balanced ratio of loans to deposits. We will continue to focus intensively on product innovations, simplifying services Estonia LHV PankWhile the Estonian banking sector has long been dominated by foreign lenders, domestic banks such as LHV Pank, the country winner for 2022, are making a strong play for Estonian business and are pushing their more international rivals when it comes to technology and innovation.LHV saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 30% in 2021, with total assets up 38% and net profits rising 85%. The bank’s return on equity has also risen steadily, from 13.8% in 2019 to 17.3% in 2020 and 25.6% in 2021, while its cost to income ratio dropped from 53.2% in 2019 to 38.6% last year. In 2021, the bank grew its customer base by 24%.If this was not enough to win the award, LHV has also been at the forefront of digital innovation, becoming the first bank in Estonia to offer clients the opportunity to trade in crypto-assets via Bitstamp, one of the world’s largest licenced crypto exchanges.Since the beginning of 2021, LHV has also launched a fully virtual bank card that is ready to use almost instantaneously, with no monthly fee and no need for a plastic card. Today, almost one in every five new bank cards ordered from the bank is a virtual card.“LHV has always paid great attention to the development of its digital channels, and this gave us an advantage when Covid-19 arrived, because our customers could already do all the necessary operations in the mobile app or in the internet bank,” says Kadri Kiisel, chairman of the management board at LHV Pank.In 2020, LHV was also the first bank in Estonia to launch green home loans with a more favourable fixed interest rate to encourage clients to make greener choices when buying or building a home. “Customers want to see the bank as a partner who is ready to think along with them and offer them the best all-round solutions, and that is exactly what we at LHV want to do,” Mr Kiisel says. Georgia Bank of GeorgiaGeorgia’s economy has recovered well from the Covid-19 pandemic, with gross domestic product growth of 10.5% year on year in the first half of 2022, according to the World Bank, compared to average growth of just 4% a year between 2011 and 2021. This has been aided by a pickup in tourism, which has reached almost pre-pandemic levels, and with the country set to gain from the inflow of Russian businesses and tech-sector professionals fleeing the fallout from the war in Ukraine.For banks like our country winner for 2022, Bank of Georgia, it is an important time. The bank saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 35.3% in 2021, with total assets rising by 6.4% and net profits up 142.7%. The bank’s return on equity, meanwhile, almost doubled between 2020 and 2021, rising from 13.9% to 26.8%.Digitalisation has increasingly become a core feature for Bank of Georgia. The number of active users of its mBank and iBank platforms grew 21.2% in 2021, to account for 58.6% of the bank’s active customer base. In 2021, it added new digital products and redesigned product journeys, aimed at simplifying customer digital experiences, including a fully digital consumer lending process, digital onboarding and retail brokerage.In the first quarter of 2021, Bank of Georgia also launched a financial mobile app for businesses, and within six months of its launch half of the bank’s active business digital users were using it. The bank is now working on a junior app, a first for schoolchildren in Georgia, which will combine fun with financial elements. In December 2021 Bank of Georgia also launched a new investment platform for retail investors, embedded into its mBank platform.The impact of all of this is all too apparent: according to the bank, 96% of all its customer transactions were done via the bank’s digital channels in 2021. Hungary OTP BankOTP Group accounted for several winners in our central and eastern Europe list for 2022, and among them the award for its Hungarian main operations — OTP Bank — which saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 9% in 2021, and its total assets increase by 24%. Net profits for the bank also grew strongly, by 34% year on year, while its non-performing loan ratio continued to drop.Across the region, OTP Bank has pushed to be the leader in financing the transition to a low-carbon economy, as well as building a sustainable future. The bank has created a green loan framework to ensure that green lending has a real and tangible sustainability impact and in July 2021 it issued its first euro-denominated MREL-eligible green bond, with an order book of more than €400m.At the same time, over the past few years OTP Bank has also rolled out its personal finance management service, aimed at helping its clients better manage their finances. The bank has continued to improve its digital user experience and increase customers’ financial awareness. It has also expanded its chat platform, and now has 16 end-to-end chatbot processes live, providing automated support around the clock.In 2021, OTP Bank launched a new corporate client servicing model for day-to-day cash management services, in order to respond to increasing demand for remote client services and to improve the client experience. The new processes are customised for various needs, supported by remote client serving processes and digital tools. As part of this initiative, the bank reviewed more than 400 processes, from current account opening and contracting for new products and services, to complex corporate liquidity services, with many subsequently being redesigned for better usability. Kosovo Raiffeisen Bank KosovoHigh inflation, falling consumer and investor confidence and tightening financing conditions are expected to put a dampener on Kosovo’s economic growth this year and next, but the country has already shown resilience, with economic output expanding by an estimated 9.5% in 2021.Our country winner for 2022, Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo, has a 20% domestic market share, making it the largest bank in the country in terms of its balance sheet. While the bank’s Tier 1 capital dropped by 13.5% in 2021, its overall assets grew by 7.2%, with pre-tax return on equity growing from 14.5% to 24.2% year on year and its cost-to-income ratio improving from 54.1% to 46.9%.The implementation of several digital solutions over the past 18 months has strengthened the bank’s position. In 2021, it focused on expanding its digital offerings, including its e-Finance platform, which allows easier access to term loans for investments or multipurpose working capital credit lines. In 2021, it also launched its mobile version for customers to trade in various time zones in foreign currencies. It is aiming to become a Swift gpi bank by the end of 2022, which will enable it to offer clients the main benefits of gpi, including faster payment, traceability, security, transparency and cross-border payments.In June 2022, Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo launched RaiKesh, becoming the first bank in Kosovo to offer a digital loan platform for individuals, through which a customer can apply for a personal loan online and receive an answer within minutes.“We are always observing the market trends and strive to adopt our strategy, products and services to meet our customers’ expectations,” says Anita Kovacic, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo. “We shape our future by continually observing the market trends, like green and digital that continue to drive our innovation. We trust that our adoptive strategy approach will keep us number one and the most recommended bank in Kosovo.” Lithuania AB iauliu BankasIn the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lithuania suffered only a mild recession, with the economy contracting by around 0.1% in 2020, before growing by 6% in 2021. The Baltic nation is on track to see growth of 2.1% this year, despite the impact of the war in nearby Ukraine.AB iauliu Bankas, our country winner for 2022, has had an equally solid few years, with Tier 1 capital expanding by 9% in 2021, after growing by 51% in 2020, and total assets up 31% year on year, after rising by 21% and 11% in 2020 and 2019, respectively.This year has seen the bank take several important steps. In 2022, iauliu Bankas launched remote customer onboarding, with the whole process taking on average 15 minutes and approval within one working day. In February, iauliu Bankas also launched an upgraded leasing application system for car dealerships that have co-operation agreements with the bank, enabling dealerships to upload customers’ leasing applications and, where possible, conclude leasing contracts without the assistance of a bank employee.The bank is actively pursuing green projects. In 2022, it established SB Modernizavimo Fondas, with the goal of providing funds to renovate 600 old apartment buildings in the country, and thereby improving the living conditions of 16,000 households, while saving around 200 gigawatt hours of energy per year. Loans worth €275m have been provided by Lithuanian and foreign financial institutions, including the European Investment Bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank, INVL Asset Management, Swedbank and the Nordic Investment Bank.CEO Vytautas Sinius says that this latest award is a sign that the bank is on the right track. “For us, this is proof that we are moving in the right direction and an incentive to keep doing our best onwards,” he says. Moldova Moldova AgroindbankFor the Moldovan banking sector, the past few years have been a period of greater transparency and modernisation, with the government enacting important changes to strengthen the integrity and finality of the central bank’s regulatory and supervisory decisions. Even so, the country still faces challenges from limited financial inclusion and shallow capital markets, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.Despite these issues, the winner of this year’s Moldova country award, Moldova Agroindbank (MAIB), has continued to grow strongly, while also pursuing a transformational agenda that puts it in a strong position going forward.The bank has pushed forward with modernising its main business lines and bringing in digital solutions and offerings. Since the beginning of 2021, it has launched a “mortgage in foreign currency” product, adapted credit products to legislative changes, brought in more automation and trained its staff to operate in a more agile way. In November 2021, the bank launched DriveHub, a platform focused on automotive sales, followed by Casahub in April 2022, a platform to search, buy or sell real estate in Moldova.Meanwhile, MAIB has continued to expand its portfolio of digital services, launching an innovative solution for bank customers which makes it possible to accept card payments on a smartphone or tablet. To date, the bank has issued more than 350 licences for smart point-of-sale devices, with merchants receiving a daily report regarding the transactions performed.“Our customers are more accustomed to doing everything online, and digital is becoming the key touchpoint with the customer,” says MAIB CEO Giorgi Shagidze. “Over 40% of deposits and nearly a third of our loans are now made via digital channels. We plan to continue winning over the customer with our outstanding service and products.” Montenegro NLB Banka AD PodgoricaIt has been a challenging year for much of the Balkans region, with lingering economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and concerns over knock-on effects of the war in nearby Ukraine. This has had a negative impact on businesses and, as a result, for the Balkan banking sectors.NLB Banka AD Podgorica, our 2022 country winner for Montenegro, is no exception, but the bank has shown itself to be an ambitious lender, with significant growth across all key metrics and an important merger completed with one of its domestic rivals that gives it a strong position to grow further.In 2021, the bank saw its Tier 1 capital expand by 33.7%, with total assets up 39.8% and net profits rising by almost 230%. Return on equity almost tripled to 14.1%, despite the bank’s cost-to-income ratio rising from 56.6% in 2020 to 60.7%.In November 2021, NLB Banka’s merger with Komercijalna banka AD Podgorica was completed, increasing the bank’s total assets by €146m, or 24%, with an €89m growth in the loan book to non-banks and more than 29,000 clients migrated to NLB Banka as a result of the merger.Another key focus of the lender over the past year has been adjusting its internal processes and procedures for the implementation of the new legal framework, aimed at adapting Montenegrin business standards to those of the EU. NLB Banka has also moved to integrate the UN Principles for Responsible Banking into all its activities, while also committing to advancing financial literacy in the country; the bank visits primary schools with the aim of educating children about basic financial concepts, and the importance of saving and having a responsible attitude towards money.“We are focusing on our basic strength that we are a traditionally innovative bank. Therefore, we work on understanding the main requirements and needs of our clients and to fulfil them every day,” says NLB Banka AD Podgorica’s CEO Martin Leberle. North Macedonia NLB Banka AD SkopjeThe past year has been impressive for NLB Banka AD Skopje, our country winner for North Macedonia. The bank saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 24.8% in 2021, with total assets up 11.6% and net profits more than doubling year on year. Unsurprisingly, the bank’s return on equity also more than doubled, from 8.4% in 2020 to 17.1% in 2021, with its cost-to-income ratio dropping to 40.5%.NLB Banka has increasingly positioned itself as a financial supermarket, offering comprehensive financial advice and optimal asset management to its customers. The bank has expanded its range of non-banking products to include investment funds and life insurance, as well as the introduction of sale and trading of shares and assets for individuals and legal entities. At the same time, the bank has introduced a range of new digital functions, including opening its first fully digital branch. In October 2021, it became the first bank in the country to integrate the use of electronic identity into its operations, allowing customers to identify themselves and sign e-documents with their qualified e-signature from anywhere in the world.Like many of its global peers, NLB Banka has also taken a proactive stance towards addressing climate change, with a focus on green loans and particularly lending to areas like renewable electricity generation, pollution reduction and improving the environment. In co-operation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, it has introduced dedicated credit lines for energy efficiency, consisting of two products with a total value of €2m.“Our plans remain tied to the interest of the people and economy of North Macedonia,” says NLB Banka AD Skopje’s CEO Branko Greganović. “Two themes will be especially important in that regard: first, acting responsibly in support of sustainable development; and second, our products will be aimed at supporting our clients finding their way into the digital world.” Poland PKO Bank PolskiPoland continues to be an economic powerhouse in eastern Europe and a growing financial services hub for the region. Banks like PKO Bank Polski, our country winner for 2022, have shown themselves to be highly adaptable and forward looking, while also compassionate to the challenges of those in need.The bank has been involved in aid programmes to support refugees from the war in neighbouring Ukraine, offering refugees the opportunity to set up a bank account on the basis of simplified procedures, quick and free issuance of a temporary account card, as well as abolition of fees for foreign transfer orders to banks in Ukraine. To date, Ukrainian citizens have opened more than 270,000 accounts at PKO Bank Polski, with the bank’s mobile app available in Ukrainian and a Ukrainian banking hotline set up. It has so far fundraised more than 11m zlotys ($2.4m) to help finance the living needs of refugees, transport and accommodation, as well as medical, legal and psychological assistance.PKO Bank Polski has set the tone for changes in the Polish market, introducing innovative solutions in co-operation with the start-up community and expanding mobile banking products. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the transition of customers to remote channels; during the first quarter of 2022, the bank’s share of digital sales for consumer loans amounted to 79% of the total. Meanwhile, the bank’s IKO mobile app continues to give the bank a competitive edge in the country; since the beginning of 2021, the app has acquired several new updates including contactless payments made by phone without a bank card.“In these complex circumstances, we react in a flexible and efficient way to social, economic and business changes,” says Pawe Gruza, vice-president of PKO Bank Polski’s management board. “We have set our eyes on personalisation, development of remote forms of services, even faster digitisation and automation of services.” Romania Raiffeisen Bank RomaniaRaiffeisen Bank Romania scoops the 2022 country award due to its impressive progress in sustainable finance and continued efforts to make banking services more accessible.In May 2021, Raiffeisen Bank Romania became the first bank in the country to issue green bonds, worth 400.5m lei (€81m), with the funds obtained set to be channelled into eligible projects that ensure the transition to a sustainable economy. The bonds have a maturity of five years and a fixed coupon rate of 3.086%, just 0.5 percentage points above the yield of sovereign securities in the country.The issuance was followed in June by a second green bond issued by the bank, which at €243m was also the largest corporate bond ever issued in Romania, and a third, worth €106m, in June 2022. The bank also established a Green Bond Framework in 2021, as part of a broader sustainability strategy with the aim of focusing on assets with a positive environmental impact, and was an official signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking.Beyond these, Raiffeisen Bank Romania has continued to register strong growth, with a 15% increase in total assets in 2021, a 1.5% rise in Tier 1 capital, and a 22% jump in net profits, with a return on equity of 15%. Meanwhile, non-performing loans have continued to fall, dropping from 3.8% in 2020 to 3.4%.In the realm of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the bank has continued to develop and adapt its business model, launching two lending products dedicated to sustainability focused SME businesses, with its recently launched Sustainability Platform aimed at SME clients and designed as a tool to guide SMEs to solutions for increasing energy efficiency and reducing costs.In May 2022, the bank also launched Smart Market, a digital loyalty ecosystem that brings together customers with partners — a first in the Romanian banking market — opening up a new digital channel for selling and promoting products, supported by artificial intelligence solutions. Serbia OTP Banka SrbijaPulling off a sizeable merger in the midst of a global pandemic is worthy of accolades, which is part of the reason OTP Banka Srbija is our country winner for Serbia.In May 2021, OTP Banka Srbija became one of the leading banks in the country after the successful merger of Vojvodjanska banka and OTP Bank Srbija. The combined bank is now the largest in the country in terms of market share of loans and the second-largest in terms of assets. The integrated bank has net assets of €5.6bn, employs almost 3000 people and services more than 750,000 active clients, with an extensive footprint of 155 branches and 274 ATMs in 91 cities and six regions across the country.The bank is now firmly looking ahead. In June 2022, it adopted an environmental, social and corporate governance strategy, with defined targets, key performance indicators, expectations and organisational structure, and since the beginning of 2021, it has upgraded or extended its digital banking with new services in areas like foreign exchange trading and mobile banking for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The bank has said that over the next five years, the focus of its digital transformation will be the development of differentiated digital services, with a focus on digital online products for both retail clients and legal entities.In 2021, the bank also launched a new edition of its Generator Zero, which supports sustainable solutions projects coming from micro enterprises, SMEs and start-ups from the private sector that have real and measurable effects on reducing carbon footprints.On the financial side, the bank had a strong 2021. The lender’s net profits tripled between 2020 and 2021, while its total assets expanded by 8.2% and Tier 1 capital by 6.6%. Meanwhile, its return on equity went from just 2.9% in 2020 to 11.1% in 2021. In the first half of 2022 the bank’s share of mortgage loans reached 22%, while its share of deposits reached 13.5%. Slovakia Tatra bankaIt is not an easy time for the Slovak economy, with gross domestic product below pre-pandemic levels and concerns over the impact of high energy costs. In September, Slovakia’s prime minister said that soaring electricity costs had left his country’s economy at risk of collapse, according to the Financial Times.Even so, banks operating in the country are firmly looking towards the future. Tatra banka, our 2022 winner, saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 4.9% in 2021, with total assets up 25.2% year on year and net profits rising almost 42%, after dropping by 21.2% in 2020.The bank is pushing to play a key role in the transition towards sustainability. In April 2021, it became the first bank in Slovakia to issue green bonds. The issue attracted the attention of the Nasdaq Sustainable Bond Network, with which it subsequently formed a partnership. It has also introduced an ‘Account for the Blue Planet’, offering clients green alternatives to its products and a combination of digital solutions facilitating everyday finance management with intelligent technology towards a sustainable future. Clients can use functions that allow them to find out and monitor their impact on the environment.Meanwhile, in July 2021, Tatra banka launched its own buy now, pay later (BNPL) product, to compete with other BNPL providers in the Slovak market. The bank also launched digital signing in the first half of 2021, and in July 2021 introduced a lite version of its app, with clients able to decide which version of the app is best suited for their needs, aided by a simple questionnaire.“Tatra banka has continued in its commitment to innovation leadership with carefully monitoring of the value offered to clients,” says Michal Liday, chairman of the board of directors and general director of Tatra banka. “Clients’ needs come first for Tatra banka and we will deliver innovations that brings more comfort to their lives.” Slovenia SKB bankaIt has been another year of strengthening its capital base for SKB banka, once again the country winner for Slovenia, which saw its Tier 1 capital grow by 7.4% in 2021, after an increase of 21.3% in 2020, and with total assets up 5%, after rising by 8% the year before. This came as the bank’s net profits returned to positive growth, jumping 32% year on year, and its return on equity edged up from 9.1% in 2020 to reach 10.9%.Despite operating in a high liquidity environment, accompanied by strong competitive pressures on loan interest rates, SKB banka has managed to overcome a decrease in net interest income by successfully increasing its overall service fees income, keeping the bank’s net income on a par with 2020 figures.Throughout 2021 and 2022, SKB banka has also improved its operational efficiency by gradually transforming and digitising key processes, while automating others. In 2021, the bank introduced several new products and services, including optimising its card portfolio and upgrading its ATM network, which now includes the option of cash recycling (towards an environmental, social and corporate governance orientation). The bank was also the first on the market to introduce an amount-based interest-rate policy on consumer loans, among other initiatives.At the same time, like its parent company OTP Group, SKB banka aims to be a leader in its region in terms of financing the transition to a low-carbon economy, setting ambitious targets for the next few years. Meanwhile, in May 2021, it was announced that OTP Group had acquired rival bank Nova KBM, with final regulatory approval expected later this year. After that has been received the merger of SKB banka and Nova KBM will begin, likely bringing with it plenty of opportunities for synergies and growth going forward.UkraineSense Bank (Alfa-Bank Ukraine)It is fair to say that banks operating in Ukraine are undergoing a profoundly difficult period of time and that they all deserve some level of acclaim. At the same time, our country winner for 2022, Sense Bank, has shown impressive resilience and adaptability, as well as a strong desire to find solutions that will aid the population and country during this time of need.Sense Bank’s previous emphasis on digital development helped it to react swiftly not just to the Covid-19 pandemic, but also to operating in a country at war. “The war, of course, had a great influence on the tendencies of the financial sector,” says Roman Shpek, head of Sense Bank’s supervisory board. “It did not turn our plans into memories, but it added even more restrictions from regulators, a rapidly increasing level of migration and new conditions of life, where mobility, in addition to convenience, also means safety.”In 2022, the bank announced that it will change its name to Sense Bank, linked to its digital banking app Sense SuperApp. The app has grown quickly, from having six new functions in 2020 to 52 functions in 2021, and in 2022, despite the war, more than 20 functions have already been launched. The team has reduced the time for updates from six months to just two weeks, with 1.7 million customers using the app as of the end of June 2022.Among other recent digital additions, the bank was the first in the country to: launch Apple business chat with rapid authorisation, via Sense’s iMessage; offer endless grace periods with the Сaméléon credit and debit card; introduce one-click stock trading of leading international companies; and introduce investing in military bonds — a process that takes only five minutes. It was also the first in the world to organise a concert inside a mobile banking app, when more than 60,000 people watched the famous Ukrainian singer Monatik live.
Bank of the Year Awards 2022 — Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific’s top lenders from 2022 Bangladesh Standard Chartered BangladeshStandard Chartered Bangladesh (SC Bangladesh) scooped the 2022 Bank of the Year award after it took bold steps to drive forward the country’s green and digital agenda, launching services specific to the domestic market.The bank has championed the introduction of green financing in Bangladesh, as it issued the first green zero-coupon bond for the Sajida Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that works to improve health outcomes. The total face value of the bond was Tk1bn ($9.8m), which provided the foundation with an alternative source of funding for its microcredit operations.SC Bangladesh also arranged the first green bond for Pran Agro, a large agricultural and food processing company, with a face value of Tk1.5bn.In technology, the bank launched the Digital Trade Counter during 2021. The online solution, available on the Straight2Bank NextGen portal, simplifies the process of document submission and tracking for both international and local businesses.To provide support during the Covid-19 pandemic, the lender launched the Saadiq Sadaqah account. Set up as a mudaraba-based account, which is widely used by Islamic banks to raise deposits, the account allows holders to donate profits raised by the account to a charity of their choice.Naser Ezaz Bijoy, CEO of SC Bangladesh, says: “Global trade remains one of the key building blocks of Bangladesh’s growing economy. By accelerating transformational innovations, we will continue to help businesses dovetail with their global counterparts.“With our uniquely diverse network, we are also helping Bangladeshi businesses access 59 markets globally, at the same time, reinforcing Bangladesh’s potential as an investment destination through our key corridors and international financial hubs,” he adds. “We are committed to putting Bangladesh on a sustainable path without slowing development, co-creating unique sustainability-focused solutions with our partners and clients.” Brunei Baiduri BankBrunei’s Baiduri Bank has won the Bank of the Year award on the back of sound fundamentals. In 2021, it recorded net profits of Br$58.5m ($42.5m), while its cost-to-income ratio improved and now sits below 50%, following initiatives to improve efficiency. Non-performing loans also declined.Baiduri has focused on building up its environmental, social and governance credentials, as well as becoming actively involved in supporting the local community. Developments included working in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports on the creation of a mobile app for volunteers. Named ‘Mengalinga’ (‘we care’ in English), the app connects companies and organisations with volunteers, especially young people.In addition, the bank launched its first QR code payment solution, DSTPay, in conjunction with UnionPay. DSTPay also marks UnionPay International’s (UPI’s) first in south-east Asian mobile wallet that features a collaboration between a bank, telco and a payments network. Customers can use the QR code at more than 200 merchants and in 45 international markets, because it leverages the UPI platform.Baiduri has supported high-net-worth customers at its headquarters with the launch of a Prestige Centre, which offers customers a more relaxed environment and dedicated space for meeting with their relationship managers.To support and upskill its staff, the bank created its Leadership Academy in December 2021, to enable staff to self-direct their learning and development paths. HR systems were overhauled, with new modules focused on recruitment, digital onboarding, job profiling and succession planning soon to be added.Baiduri also launched employee engagement strategies, such as an employee wellness initiative to make fitness and wellness activities a part of the workplace culture, with a volunteer programme, Baiduri Cares, encouraging employees to spend at least eight hours a year on volunteering activities. Cambodia ABA BankCambodia’s Bank of the Year in 2022 is ABA Bank, which ambitiously overhauled its consumer banking services over the course of the review period.ABA expanded its mobile offering at the start of 2022 with the introduction of its ABA QR feature in its banking app. An account-to-account transfer feature, it allows for fast and secure transfers between ABA Mobile users. ABA QR is integrated with the Cambodian national QR code standard, KHQR, allowing its customers to receive transfers from customers of other KHQR-integrated banks for free. The QR code helps eliminate the risk of customers inputting incorrect account numbers and is dynamic, so the user can input the amount to transfer or pay, ensuring the correct amount is sent.To make the process of banking more convenient for its customers, ABA introduced self-service plastic cards. Customers are able to order new cards from their ABA Mobile app and then issue it through the ABA card machine. Cards can be issued within two minutes of being ordered through the app, with users presenting a QR code from within the app. In the three months since the launch of the service, the ABA card machines have issued 50,000 cards, representing 50% of all cards issued by the bank during the period.ABA Bank has further improved its mobile app, recognising the demand from consumers for this service. Of the 603,000 customers who joined the bank in 2021, 99.5% downloaded the app. These people contributed to the 1.9 million active users of the app as of the end of June.“ABA will surely continue implementing its unique strategy with a focus on the user-centric approach, while developing new services and platforms,” says Askhat Azhikhanov, CEO of ABA Bank. “We will keep relying strongly on technologies and the progressive development of our self-banking facilities for our proposition.” China Agricultural Bank of ChinaIn the highly competitive Chinese banking market, Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) came out on top to win the Bank of the Year accolade. In 2021, the bank enjoyed good financial results, with an 11.7% increase in net profits and a 9.4% increase on Tier 1 capital. Meanwhile, its non-performing loans fell slightly, to 1.43% from 1.57%.Recognising the differing needs of its customers in accessing its apps, ABC released new versions of its apps. The bank launched a rural version of its mobile banking app following research into the preferences of customers in country areas. This included adding services such as Huinong wealth management and Huinong e-loan. These updates were promoted through its ‘revitalising villages and benefiting rural people with mobile banking’ marketing strategy.ABC also supported rural areas through credit lines, with the balance of loans to key counties reaching Rmb266bn ($37.6bn), representing a 15% increase on the previous year.A customised version of the app was developed to support elderly customers. The special modifications included large font sizes and page display, simplified service functions and transaction processes, and a one-click direct line to customer service. The app also has expanded language features, including Tibetan and Uighur, to support basic banking functions.As part of its focus on digitisation, ABC set up a fintech innovation centre in Xiong’an New Area, constructing an incubation centre and a pilot area to test innovations. The bank is also focusing on ‘big data’, introducing in-depth data integration and data accumulation.It has introduced cloud computing technology with the construction of an integrated cloud platform, developed as one cloud with multiple cores. All new production and test resources were integrated to the cloud, which help teams to self-service when developing and testing new products and services. Hong Kong Standard Chartered Hong KongIn its pledge to support sustainable business, Standard Chartered was the first bank in Hong Kong to launch a green mortgage programme with the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) in October 2021. As of the end of May 2022, 10% of the bank’s portfolio was green mortgages. In the first half of 2022, 21% of new business drawdown has been to properties certified as green, which is gold standard or above, by HKGBC.Standard Chartered Hong Kong (SCHK) launched a sustainable savings account (SSA) in December 2021, enabling retail clients to contribute to sustainable development. Their ‘sustainable balance’ will be used to support activities funded by the bank, including infrastructure projects, as well as financing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Since launch, it has acquired almost HK$1bn ($130m) of new funds through SSA.The bank’s green focus extends to its cards, with new credit cards issued since November 2021 being carbon neutral.SCHK also launched a focused service, ‘Priority Private’ (PP), for wealth management customers. The bank opened a dedicated centre for these customers to provide a high-end experience in early 2021. Since the launch of PP, the client base increased by 21% year-on-year, while the segment’s assets under management grew by 5%.Mary Huen, CEO of SCHK, says: “Despite the pandemic headwinds, our business in Hong Kong remains strong and resilient in 2022. In the third quarter, our Hong Kong business recorded its best quarterly income and was the largest income contributor to the group.“This achievement supports our strategic focus in the wealth management business in Hong Kong and the GBA, along with continuous investment in digital initiatives,” she adds. “Moving forward, we would continue to transform on innovation and sustainability in supporting our customers’ needs to capture the unique opportunities ahead.” India Canara BankIndia’s Canara Bank rounded out a successful 2022 by picking up the country’s Bank of the Year award. The lender saw its profits increase by a whopping 462.2% year-on-year in 2022, its return on equity almost doubled to 12.82% and non-performing loan ratio fell to 2.65%.To support its customers across each aspect of their banking journey, Canara Bank launched a banking super-app called Canara Ai1 (All in One). The app has more than 250 features, with services such as deposits, loans and transfers being joined by shopping, payments and booking facilities.Additionally, the bank launched a foreign exchange (FX)-specific app, FX4U, allowing customers greater ease in handling FX transactions through internet banking. The app includes modules on currency sale and purchase, realisation of export bills, onward remittance and booking for forward contracts.Recognising the potential in the gold loan segment, the bank created a gold loan vertical. Tapping into significant market demand, the bank reached the milestone target of Rs1tn ($12.3bn).Remarking on the bank’s success in this year’s awards, Shri LV Prabhakar, managing director and CEO of Canara Bank, says the bank has initiated a process of focusing on retail growth, recovery and empowering regional offices, in tandem with corporate social responsibility themes. This is the basis of the bank’s mission to become a Rs20tn business by the end of the 2023 financial year.“Canara Bank has shown stellar growth in business during the previous two years by adding business of Rs1.28tn and Rs1.42tn during financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22, respectively,” Mr Prabhakar says. “On a technological front, the bank has launched the banking super-app Ai1 with more than 250 features and FX4U platform for smoother FX transactions. The bank believes in inclusive involvement and inclusive development for sustainable growth.” Indonesia OCBC NISPOCBC NISP has undergone several transformational changes, as it turned to focusing on addressing the pain points of its customers across Indonesia.To support its younger customers on their journey into banking and financial security, the bank implemented the #FinanciallyFit scheme in 2021. Working with NielsenIQ, the bank conducted the 2021 Financial Fitness Index survey, which found young Indonesians had a low financial fitness score of 37.72/100. In response, OCBC set up financial education programmes, which have so far helped 72,000 participants.OCBC also launched its Financial Fitness Gym, which is a bank branch where customers can learn about their financial health. As a result, the bank saw an increase in the use of its wealth management products, with a 15% year-on-year increase in revenue from products including mutual funds and securities products as of the end of 2021.Green finance remained a focus for OCBC, with the bank seeing Rp30.89tn ($1.9bn) of sustainable financing by the end of 2021, with 40% of this comprising green financing disbursements. The bank continued its work in the TAYTB Women Warrior programme, which has seen loans to female business owners increase by 41% year-on-year to the end of June 2022, and women debtors increasing by 20%.The bank also introduced the Global Wallet debit card, which enables debit transactions in 12 currencies while abroad. The transactions are debited immediately, with no extra charges or conversion fees on currencies including the US dollar, euro or renminbi.“Our focus is to be the bank that is embedded in people’s daily lives,” says Parwati Surjaudaja, president director of OCBC NISP. “We believe the approach to banking will look very different in the future, but the core purpose will remain the same. Thus, we need to continuously adapt to address these challenges and maximise the opportunities arising from next-generation banking.” Kazakhstan ForteBankKazakhstan’s ForteBank enjoyed a year of solid financial results, as the bank saw its net profits rise by 21%, Tier 1 capital increase by 2.3% and assets grow by 16.1%, all while its non-performing loan ratio declined to 4.92%. This helped the bank through its ambitious programme of improvements to its product offering.During 2021, ForteBank stepped up its online game with the implementation of ForteBusiness. The new service is focused on helping the digital journeys of legal entities by rolling out digital onboarding. During the launch, the bank managed the migration of customer data to the new platform, representing around 25,000 users. Through digitisation, the bank was able to speed up the support it offered to these customers on non-loan products.The bank followed this up with the implementation of a mobile application for individual entrepreneurs, providing online services, such as the remote opening of accounts and applying for loans online. The implementation of remote services has helped to reduce the workload burden on the bank’s offices.Responding to the requests of its customers, in June 2021 ForteBank introduced three new card products. Each of the products has a range of benefits, including higher cash-back, no monthly fee and no fees for transferring or withdrawing cash. Card issuance is fully automated and takes five minutes, after which the cards can be used without restrictions. This means that customers with the Forte App installed can use it immediately on their mobiles. Customers wanting a physical card can receive it via a courier or pick it up from a branch.In its goal to support inclusivity, ForteBank became a member of Closing the Gender Gap accelerator in June 2022, held in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. Kyrgyzstan DemirBankDemirBank has held on to its title of Bank of the Year for Kyrgyzstan, as the bank coupled its digital ambitions and consumer services with a year of strong results. As well as seeing net profits rise by 33%, assets increase by 18% and Tier 1 capital expand by 17%, DemirBank saw its non-performing loans ratio almost halve, to 2.1%.It has worked to expand its footprint of ATMs across the country, with 303 machines representing around 40% market share. The bank also has 3627 point-of-sale terminals, worth 30% of market share.The bank has undertaken a strategy toward digitisation, both as a means of supporting customers and increasing the bank’s own efficiency and effectiveness. In order to achieve this, DemirBank brought in several processes, such as the simplification and automation of credit card applications and introducing new mobile banking services. The bank is working closely with the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic and the government on the development of digital projects and regulatory frameworks.Among the innovations is the creation of the QR code ATM, a first for the banking market in Kyrgyzstan. It enables customers to withdraw cash without the need for a card. DemirBank continued to expand its mobile app through 2022, adding functions to enable them to manage their accounts without visiting the branch.The bank has expanded its Card Plus product, which allows customers to pay for goods and services with their credit cards through a selected instalment plan of six, nine or 12 months. Since its launch, the service has seen 350 merchants join the programme, including in the medical, restaurant and education sectors. A total volume of more than $1.2m has been transacted. The service has the additional process of reducing the number of cash-based payments in the country. Macau ICBC (Macau)ICBC (Macau) took steps to leverage its market position to expand its business opportunities in 2021. The bank set up the research centre for Portuguese-speaking countries, a first for the Chinese banking industry. The centre leverages Macau’s position as a former Portuguese colony to explore the commercial and trade potential with Portuguese-speaking countries as part of China’s Go Global strategy and to support the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.To support customers on their digital journey, the bank released an update to its personal mobile banking app, accelerating the integrated connection between mobile banking and physical outlets. The number of merchants linked to the mobile banking service increased, with the number of Simply Pay merchants reaching 1500 with a total volume of $989m and a market share of 30%, as of the end of June 2022.Consolidating its position as a cross-border player with mainland China, ICBC (Macau) enables customers to use the witness account opening programme to open and use banking services overseas. As of the end of June 2022, the number of accounts opened in the Greater Bay Area was more than 2000, seeing double-digit growth year on year.In response to the difficulties still being felt by local companies caused by the pandemic, the bank offered measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises.Jiang Yisheng, chairman of ICBC (Macau), says: “During the past 12 months, by improving the governance capacity and accelerating the digital transformation, ICBC (Macau) continued to pursue customer-centred development, diversify and improve personal finance services, to better meet the customers’ needs. We also shouldered our responsibilities as a major bank and contributed to the economic recovery, actively served the transformation and upgrading of the real economy, and went all out to meet the diverse financial needs.” Malaysia MaybankMaybank has taken definitive steps to overhaul its business, as it embarked on the first phase of its five-year transformation plan, named M25, set to run until 2025.The bank has three core aims for this plan, seeking a sustainable return on equity, offering a top-rate customer experience, and becoming a regional environmental, social and governance leader. In its first year of implementation, the bank facilitated cross-border fund transfers for customers to Singapore and Cambodia, and the launch of its mobile app Maybank2U Biz, which simplified day to day business banking for small and medium-sized enterprises.On the sustainability front, the bank mobilised more than RM13.6bn ($2.96bn) in sustainable finance, with a commitment to a cumulative total of RM50bn by 2025. In its own ambitions to become carbon neutral, the bank has now entered into its Scope 3 portfolio emissions baseline.During 2021, Maybank became the first bank in Malaysia to commit to buy Malaysia Renewable Energy Certificates, which are equivalent to 70% of the bank’s Malaysian operations’ Scope 2 carbon emissions.To support its employees, the bank has officially rolled out a remote working solution, named mWork, after being piloted during the Covid-19 pandemic. The platform allows employees with secure and flexible access to internal systems using a virtual desktop interface. The system is available to more than 9000 employees working across the business, including in China, Myanmar and Brunei.“Maybank’s recently refined corporate strategy, M25+, will focus on driving more meaningful differentiation in five key strategic thrusts and accelerating the development of key capabilities for sustainable long-term growth: intensifying customer centricity, accelerating digitalisation and technological modernisation, strengthening Maybank’s business presence and position beyond Malaysia, driving its leadership position in the sustainability agenda,” says Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli, group president and CEO of Maybank. Mongolia Golomt BankMongolia’s Golomt Bank has won the award for Bank of the Year thanks to combining a successful financial year with solid innovation. After a couple of difficult years, the bank returned to rude health, recording a 149.5% increase in profits for 2021. Tier 1 capital also rose by 4.3%.The bank moved towards an open banking initiative, focusing on third-party financial service providers, government agencies and fintech start-ups. Through this, the bank has been able to implement several initiatives, such as using blockchain technology in 2021 to start sending online bank statements and account references to embassies. A chatbot was launched utilising artificial intelligence, speech recognition and robotics to help customers, too.Customers have benefitted from the launch of a centralised billing system, allowing for more efficient payments of household billing and utility payments. Previously, both Golomt Bank and its commercial clients had to manually input information for each household. A centralised account management system enables customers to make payments to any bank account using a unique ID, such as a phone number or email.Developments in mobile banking have helped customers in their daily lives, with the SocialPay Digital Wallet allowing in-store payments without the need for a card. The facility enables QR code payments, with transactions completed in fewer than five seconds. The wallet can be used in more than 90% of Mongolia’s supermarkets, and customers can use it to view, hide, and block or unblock their cards.As part of its community support initiatives, Golomt Bank has organised events to support female entrepreneurs and business owners, who comprise more than 60% of small and medium-sized enterprises in Mongolia. Through providing e-learning and tailored programmes for women, the bank has increased its support to women business owners by 26% over the past three years. Nepal Nepal Investment Bank LimitedNepal Investment Bank Limited (NIBL) has made supporting the community the heart of its banking proposition, which allowed it to scoop the Bank of the Year award in 2022 in a hotly contested market.Identifying areas of Nepalese society which needed additional support, the bank developed a programme for former army personnel. Working with the Nepal Army Welfare Board, NIBL introduced a low interest rate, deprived-sector lending programme with no additional charges or fees, and affordable payback. Many army personnel are from rural areas of Nepal and can struggle with limited pension payments and reduced employment opportunities after leaving the forces.The bank also launched a digital wallet, called Thaili Digital Paisa, providing customers with a combined wallet and mobile banking service. Customers can use Thaili to transfer funds and make utility payments.Following a directive from the Nepalese central bank to allow citizens with a PAN domestic taxpayer number to hold a prepaid card with a $500 per annum limit, the bank introduced the NIBL virtual prepaid international card. Under lockdown rules, the cards enabled people to make purchases from home, especially those who were studying and required resources from overseas.“At the onset of the global pandemic, the bank provided sustainable loans to the customers adversely impacted by Covid-19 as a resilience measure,” say Jyoti Prakash Pandey, CEO of NIBL.“In accordance with the strategy to diversify the portfolio from corporate sectors and support the sustainable economic growth of the country, the bank advanced the strategy to grow further in deprived sectors; women entrepreneurs; agriculture; renewable energy; micro, small and medium-sized enterprises; and national priority projects. The bank has established branches in rural areas and has given emphasis on financial literacy, and provided branchless services across the nation for financial inclusion.” New Zealand SBS BankSBS Bank has scooped the award as New Zealand’s Bank of the Year with a suite of products that are tailored to address the specific pain points of its customers.As a challenger bank in the New Zealand market, SBS has built up a strong presence, seeing its pre-tax profits increase by 156% in 2021, and the non-performing loans ratio fall to just 0.2%. Return on equity, meanwhile, doubled to 11.4%.Focusing on domestic home ownership, SBS has developed products to help more people to get on the property ladder. One such step was the development of the SBS FirstHome Combo, launched in August 2021, which combines several financial services with a mortgage. As well as a loan with a 12-month interest rate that is 1% lower than that offered by larger banks, customers will also receive a credit card offer, access to the New Zealand retirement savings scheme KiwiSaver and insurance contributions.Supporting first-time buyers has been a successful part of the bank’s business, representing 30% of total profit growth in the year to the end of March 2022, an 11% increase on the previous year’s figures.SBS’s Term Deposit Maintain service, launched in June 2021, allows members to self-serve and manage their term deposits through online banking or their mobile app. Prior to launch, customers were restricted to communicating with the bank during office hours.During May 2022, the bank introduced a mobile-only service, named Skip, to help aspiring first-time buyers to prepare for and understand the process of buying a property. The app brings all the information they need together, providing insight on the amount of money they are eligible to borrow, whether they qualify for external assistance, and the ability to track their progress towards purchase with an easy to use dashboard. Pakistan Allied BankAllied Bank has made sustainability a focus, establishing a green banking office in its risk management group to lead the green banking initiatives and monitor environmental risks of obligors.The bank planted more than 117,000 saplings between 2021 and 2022 to help tackle climate change. A further 4000 established trees of up to 10-feet tall have been planted in schools, colleges, universities and government-owned premises in collaboration with the Punjab Forest Department. Furthermore, Allied Bank has invested Rs171m ($770,000) in installing solar panels on branches, ATMs and warehouses. The bank has identified a further 149 potential sites for solar panels.Recognising that women are underserved in the banking sector, Allied Bank refocused its existing Allied Khanum account. Operated with both conventional and Islamic banking segments, the account features a 1% discount on loans under Consumer Finance for Working Women, applicable to both salaried women and entrepreneurs. Services tailored towards women include opening seven women-themed branches, which deal with women-centric financial needs and to engage more women to become active members of the banking ecosystem, with greater understanding of deposit and lending opportunities.Additionally, the bank has engaged in several corporate social responsibility initiatives, such as reducing fossil fuel consumption by 13%, arranging 954 sessions as part of the National Financial Literacy Programme in rural districts, and sponsoring 35 employees to perform hajj in 2022.CEO of Allied Bank, Aizid Razzaq Gill, says: “Allied Bank continues its endeavours in achieving its vision of creating sustainable value through growth, efficiency and diversity, for all its stakeholders. The bank [will focus on] financial inclusion, low-cost deposit mobilisation, high-quality advances and enhanced customer experience through offering innovative digital and user-friendly products and services.” Philippines Metropolitan Bank & Trust CompanyMetropolitan Bank & Trust Company (Metrobank) has come out on top and secured the Bank of the Year award for the Philippines thanks to the bank’s development of innovative services that respond to the specific needs of its customers.The bank provided support for remittance services with the development of new services and updated its mobile app with the cash pick-up feature. This enables clients to send up to 30,000 pesos ($524) in the Philippines via the bank’s partnership with more than 10,200 remittance outlets. The bank expanded its partnership with Western Union to support inbound money transfers and became the first banking partner of Sendwave, an international money transfer service, in the Philippines.Understanding the unique needs of consumers and small businesses in the country, Metrobank launched PayNow, a payment service to provide real-time transactions via the bank’s chatbot within Facebook Messenger. There are many informal sellers in the country that sell via Facebook and Instagram and, with funds being transferred within five minutes, PayNow addresses their needs for an e-commerce platform with an integrated payments gateway.Community support has also made up a large part of the bank’s work. Through the Metrobank Foundation, the bank has supported recovery from the pandemic, from the donation of funds to purchase personal protective equipment to supporting food relief programmes. A grant programme of 15m pesos has supported natural disaster support programmes, as well as financing education and the arts.“Metrobank has been in the industry for six decades and throughout our journey we have always ensured that we are able to thrive in different market conditions. We are thankful for The Banker’s recognition. It is most timely, given the challenging economic prospects that the world faces today,” says Fabian S Dee, president of Metrobank. Singapore DBSSingapore’s DBS has held on to its Bank of the Year title yet again, as it provides a differentiated offering to its customers and maintains strong financial results.From the bank’s stronghold in its home market of Singapore, it has looked to expand its reach across Asia. During 2021, the bank extended its footprint in mainland China; it acquired a 13% stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank, becoming the largest single shareholder. It also launched DBS Securities (China), the first China-Singapore securities joint venture to capture the two-way flow as China’s markets open up. Additionally, in January 2022 DBS acquired Citi’s retail business in Taiwan.On the technical front, DBS is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and launched a digital investment advisory feature to boost its DBS NAV Planner. Meanwhile, AI was also used to improve its anti-money laundering systems and identify threats.In the services space, the bank launched the FIX Marketplace as a fully digital and automated fixed income platform that allows issuers to connect directly with investors. Investors are able to launch new deals without direct intervention from the bank.Tse Koon Shee, country head at DBS Singapore, says: “Today, digital banking is the baseline for all of us. The true litmus test is how we leverage data and innovative solutions to help our customers ride out the tough times. In Singapore, the underserved are less the ones who don’t have access to banking and more those who don’t have access to financial advice.“To this, we’ve been sharpening hyper-personalised customer communications, tapping on AI and ML algorithms to generate ‘nudges’ that guide them toward better financial decisions,” he says. “These include helping customers to spend and save smarter, and ensuring they are adequately insured and invested to achieve financial wellness.” South Korea Hana BankHana Bank has won the title of Bank of the Year in South Korea thanks to its innovative approach of providing services to support young Koreans, catering to their financial needs and offering community support services.Recognising the need to aid the next generation in their financial lives, the bank created a digital financial education app, ‘I buja’, to promote financial literacy. The app is aimed at Generation Alpha (those under age 14) and their parents, to share their experience of spending, savings and investing. Children can make payments through the app while parents control the amount that is paid into the wallet.The Hana 1Q Apartment Loan, a fully contactless mortgage product, was launched to allow customers to check their eligibility — even when they have no transaction history with the bank — along with their credit limit and lending rate. Since its release in April 2021, the app has recorded transactions worth Won222.6bn ($167.7m) to the end of the year.To allow customers to get an overview of their financial circumstances, the Hana Hap service compiles the customer data from across Hana Bank, Hana Card, Hana Financial Investment and Finnq mobile service. Through this, customers can receive an online asset management service, such as product recommendations and follow-ups based on the integrated information. The app has also allowed the bank to focus its asset managed and foreign exchange (FX) services for its customers, providing advice on FX products.In addition to providing financial services, Hana Bank has addressed the issues around childcare and moved forward with its aim of creating 100 day-care centres, especially in areas with many vulnerable people. There is also a focus on developing facilities for disabled children, workplace centres for small businesses and locations in rural areas. Sri Lanka Commercial Bank of CeylonCommercial Bank of Ceylon’s Bank of the Year award comes in the middle of a three-year digital transformation to bring fully digitised services to its customers and boost the bank’s business growth.These developments see the bank redesigning its conventional offering, introducing services such as fully digital bank accounts, introducing QR code payments and banking functionality through WhatsApp and Viber.The credit card onboarding process has been automated end-to-end, allowing staff to track the progress of applications and reduce card-processing time from 10 days to three days. Its Credit Information Bureau reports, meanwhile, are now available in two minutes, rather than the previous 12.In order to reach its goal of being the bank of choice for women in 2023, Anagi Women Banking was launched in October 2021. Developed in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation, the service offers services including a savings account with a high interest rate and life insurance products for retail customers. On the business banking side, loans from SLRs2m ($5469) to SLRs250m are available for working capital or investments. In addition, the bank worked with female entrepreneurs, offering structured training programmes and capacity building initiatives for more than 500 women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Sanath Manatunge, managing director and CEO of Commercial Bank of Ceylon, says the challenging business conditions the industry has faced in recent years have shifted the bank’s business priorities. “The main focus will be on digitisation, be it customer journeys, processes or products and services,” he says. “While we will be maintaining our brick-and-mortar presence, our business expansion will also be mainly digital.“We will further strengthen our relationship with our three key customer segments – retail, corporate and SME – through use of analytics, customer service excellence and customer relationship management.” Taiwan Taishin BankTaishin Bank scooped the award for Taiwan’s Bank of the Year following impressive financial results – it recorded a 7.8% increase in net profits, a 3.7% rise in Tier 1 capital and a non-performing loan ratio that has fallen to just 0.12%.The bank worked to update its existing Richart digital banking brand, partnering with electronic payments system PlusPay to develop a financial ecosystem. Customers were given an incentive to join with a free coupon, seeing 15,000 applicants, and more than 600 new clients. Richart also collaborated with DDRoom to provide money transfer services between tenants and landlords, and with Famiport to support online sellers by analysing operational performance and providing personal loans. There was also a collaboration with LINE Pay Money, with customers able to open an account and bind it to the social messaging app LINE.Taishin LINE, launched during 2021, provides a bill paying feature. The platform was updated in 2022 with the creation of digital ATM transaction details and digital ATM coupon wallet.Wholesale banking was given a boost with the bank’s smart processing and workflow optimisation of wholesale banking operations project (SPS Project). The project consists of a smart application that allows clients to fill out each step with auto verification to avoid entry error, with a QR code issued on completion.The SPS system offers a straight-through processed workflow. When clients submit the application, the system will automatically decode the transaction from the QR code and register the information into the banking system. This is particularly useful for the remote submission of applications, removing friction which could be caused when working from home. Since launch in May 2021, the SPS project has increased operational efficiency by 60%, and reduced paper consumption and warehousing costs by 40%. Thailand Siam Commercial BankThailand’s Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has undergone a bold process of overhauling its operations, helping it further become a modern digital bank. SCB has enjoyed its financial results, with its net profits leaping by 31% and its Tier 1 capital rising by 6%. Meanwhile, the cost-to-income ratio has fallen to 42.3%.The bank’s move into innovation came with the launch of SCBX, which centres its digital and technical abilities as the key focus of its operations. When it was announced in September 2021, SCB outlined the aim to become the most admired financial technology group in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.In addition to becoming a financial technology business offering a variety of services and integrated digital platforms to increase the competitiveness of the group, it also set out the measurable goals of expanding the customer base from 16 million to 200 million within five years.Within its bold ambitions to become a leader in the investment and digital asset service, the bank has overseen the launch of SCB Securities (SCBS), a subsidiary under SCBX. SCBS has been granted licences for digital asset exchange and digital asset brokerage by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).A further SCB subsidiary, Token X, has attained an initial coin offering (ICO) portal licence from the SEC. The company is ready to provide digital token solutions, including tokenisation consultation and planning, and the development of blockchain and associated technologies. The ICO portal will help create new capabilities in digital asset tokenisation and lay the foundations for a digital asset ecosystem in Thailand. Vietnam Southeast Asia BankSoutheast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) has taken home the prize for the Bank of the Year for Vietnam, as the bank’s internationalisation goals have helped it to see strong financial returns. The bank chalked up a 92% increase in net profits and a 39% increase in Tier 1 capital, while also seeing assets rise by 17%. Meanwhile, non-performing loans declined slightly, to 1.65%.In its push towards internationalisation, the bank established strategic partnerships with organisations to help attract foreign investors. Among them was a $150m loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in June 2021, to support the expansion of lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. After six months, the IFC, in conjunction with five other international financial funds, increased the credit package to $220m.The Asia Development Bank, for example, increased the guarantee limit for commercial transactions with a total transaction value of up to $30m. During the first half of 2022, SeABank received a $200m loan from the Development Finance Corporation and a convertible loan of $75m from the IFC to support women-owned and -led small and medium-sized enterprises, and address climate risks.On international standards, SeABank became one of the first in Vietnam to implement Basel III and IFRS 9. The two standards in conjunction have helped the bank to increase resilience against macroeconomic shocks.Corporate customers were assisted with the new digital banking service SeAMobile Biz. A professional version of the existing SeAMobile, the app allows users to manage account information, sub-account books and credit statements. Businesses can automate payments of recurring bills or revenue and expenditure transactions to multiple accounts, and get a detailed overview of all transactions to better manage revenue flows and balance the books. Additional features include currency trades, management of cards and management of users.
Bank of the Year Awards 2022 — Americas
The Americas’ top lenders from 2022 Argentina Santander ArgentinaIn the past year, Santander Argentina has maintained its position as the top privately-owned bank in the country by loan and deposit volumes. It is also ahead of its peers in payment methods, foreign trade, transactional services and cash management. Unsurprisingly, it has scooped the Bank of the Year award in 2022.Santander Argentina is always striving to improve. The bank is focused on transforming its IT infrastructure to improve interoperability in its business ecosystem and with third parties, which will help to bring to market new products and services quickly. These initiatives are part of a four-year plan with an $80m budget.In addition, the lender is developing a more digital business model thanks to product portfolio simplification and back-office process automation. Digitising the customer journey is another part of the process.Santander Argentina boasts new digital products that helped it to achieve 90% digital customers and 82% digital sales. During the past year, the acceleration of digitalisation driven by the Covid-19 pandemic allowed it to launch 100% digital onboarding for most of its retail products, including accounts and packages, credit cards, insurance, personal loans and insurance.The lender also aims to become the leading bank in sustainable finance in Argentina and has been focusing on green loans and environmental, social and governance (ESG) bonds. Achievements in the past year comprise the placement of six ESG bonds, including the first sustainability bonds in the domestic capital market. In addition, the bank has an alliance with energy company Enel X to provide and finance the purchase of solar panels for small and medium-sized enterprises. Bahamas CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas)CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank is continuously striving to offer its customers the best services and experience in the Bahamas. For example, it has launched a credit card product, CIBC FirstCaribbean Mastercard Black Credit Card, catering to high-net-worth individuals. The card comes with luxury benefits including travel rewards. The Purchase Protection with Delivery Coverage feature allows most purchases made with the credit card to be protected in case of loss due to theft or accidental damage for the first 90 days from date of purchase.The bank is committed to providing customers with faster and more efficient ways to access banking services. In 2021, it started installing smart automated banking machines, which offer services such as on-screen verification of cash and cheques, as well as the option to deposit cash or cheques and make bill payments without the use of envelopes. The machines can also detect counterfeit banknotes.Clients can also now rely on the CIBC FirstCaribbean 1st Insights Personal Financing Model, an app which provides personalised financial insights to clients thanks to artificial intelligence, for example by tracking expenses, subscriptions and spending patterns. The app also alerts clients when they have funds in their chequing account that can be transferred to savings.“Covid-19 has had a significant impact on our business strategy with managing our credit portfolio, but it accelerated the bank’s digitisation transformation agenda due to the country’s imposed shutdowns and branch closures. The bank will continue its digitisation road map and streamlining activities. There will be a greater focus on growth, maintaining overall credit quality, managing costs, enhancing our client relationships and investing in our employees,” says CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) managing director Jacqueline Bend. Barbados Scotiabank BarbadosDuring the past year, Scotiabank Barbados has increased its focus on digital transformation to enable better customer experiences and more efficient operations.Now customers with an existing deposit account or credit card can open a new account using the Scotia Caribbean App, eliminating the need to visit the branch, thereby improving the customer experience. Digital account opening has resulted in a marked increase in digital sales for deposit accounts and credit cards.The bank launched the redesigned app in 2020, with additional features added over the past year, such as enhanced security and accessibility features, including biometric sign-in. Other features include the ability to share account details using email, SMS or WhatsApp, and enhanced customer access to loan statements and credit card receipts. Certain customer segments can also rely on the option to call or email their dedicated bank representative directly from the app.In June 2022, approximately 53% of Scotiabank Barbados’s customers, a 9% increase on the previous year, were enrolled on its digital platforms. Meanwhile, branch transactions have been decreasing as customers turn to digital solutions. In November 2021, it launched Scotia SelectPay, a new digital banking feature which allows customers to divide their credit card purchases of approximately Ba$500 ($253) or more into instalments.“We have made significant investments in enhancements to our processes, upskilling of our employees and bringing new technologies to Barbados, helping us provide customers with faster, safer and more convenient banking options. We have some exciting digital initiatives in the pipeline that will continue to improve the customer experience through tailored products, services and advice,” says Suzette Armoogam-Shah, managing director of Scotiabank Barbados. Bermuda The Bank of NT Butterfield & SonThe Bank of NT Butterfield & Son opened in 1858 as Bermuda’s first bank. It now provides a range of banking, trust and investment services to clients. Nevertheless, the bank shows how heritage does not hamper innovation. Last year, it launched ‘Programme Stratus’, a multi-million-dollar investment over three years to enhance the company’s technology infrastructure.As part of the programme, the lender upgraded the application that runs its ATM networks in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. It also enhanced the way in which customer debit cards are requested: debit cards can now be ordered at the time of customer onboarding and cards can be collected at the branch within three to four working days.In addition, Butterfield completed the migration of all employees in Bermuda, Cayman and Halifax to a single virtual desktop infrastructure group-wide, increasing the collaborative efficiency of the organisation.The bank is developing an environmental, social and governance framework, which incorporates three key pillars: climate risk and resilience, education and community well-being, and workforce equity. Within this framework, it has launched a number of green lending products to make it easier for clients to purchase electric or hybrid vehicles, install solar panels and plan other energy-saving improvements.Butterfield also provides an enhanced loan agreement offering 100% financing and competitive rates with seven- to 10-year repayment terms for green home loans, and up to seven years for electric and hybrid vehicle loans.This year the bank announced senior leadership changes: Michael Schrum has been named president and group chief risk officer and Craig Bridgewater named group chief financial officer. According to the bank, these appointments will support Butterfield’s strategy of long-term growth.Finally, this year Butterfield relaunched its graduate talent programme in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the UK Channel Islands. In addition to university graduates, the programme is also open to talented candidates with work experience rather than a degree. Bolivia Banco Mercantil Santa CruzBanco Mercantil Santa Cruz (BMSC) is the Bolivian lender with the largest market share in loan portfolio and deposits. In 2021, the bank recorded an impressive 72.2% jump in net profits, as the country’s economy staged a significant recovery following the relaxation of Covid-19 lockdown measures.In addition to strong growth, the lender has shown continuous support to smaller businesses, as well as large companies, by offering solutions and products tailored to their needs.More recently, it has been focusing on strengthening its technological leadership in the domestic market through innovation. This was enabled by an internal culture of innovation and multidisciplinary teams.The bank recently implemented Pagos QR BMSC, an agile payment system that works via a QR code. The platform has grown significantly since its launch, affiliating more than 2000 businesses. The platform has no additional cost for consumers and offers a number of benefits including online monitoring of transactions and electronic billing online.BMSC also offers Super Makro Cuenta, a savings account offering a competitive interest rate and daily, monthly and weekly draws to earn different amounts of cash and a prize of $b1m ($148,111) at the end of the year. It offers Banx, a line of products aimed at young people, including accounts, credit cards and loans at favourable conditions.The bank is dedicated to contributing to financial inclusion in Bolivia. It has supported growth in social housing loans and productive sector loans. For small producers who do not necessarily have access to traditional financing, the bank created an area dedicated to structured loans.BMSC continues to contribute to society with four social responsibility programmes. The funds necessary for these programmes are collected from pennies donated through client transactions. This has benefited more than 41,000 people in fields such as education, health and sports. Brazil BTG PactualThe key focus for BTG Pactual in the past 18 months has been augmenting its wholesale banking offering with services aimed at traditional retail and high-income retail clients.As a result of these changes, it has achieved 458bn reais ($85.7bn) of wealth under management in the first quarter of 2021, a fourfold increase on 2018 levels. Over the same period, adjusted net income grew by 137%, from 2.7bn reais in 2018 to 6.5bn reais in 2021.Such growth was supported by an impressive revenue expansion in business segments including investment banking and asset management. Corporate and small business lending saw triple-digit growth.Technological innovation is a strong focus for the bank, which launched several products that set it apart in the current market. For example, Invest+ is a credit card cashback programme, which entitles customers to 1% cashback for every Brazilian real spent. The cashback balance can be deposited in one of three different investment funds or redeemed as points in one of the major local mileage programmes.The bank has also developed Finanças+, a personal financial management tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse and track customers’ expenses. The tool delivers suggestions to help customers organise their day-to-day spending.BTG Pactual offers a number of products and services for enterprises, including BTG Empresas, a fully digital bank launched in 2021. It also provides supply chain credit financing and transactional banking products to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The bank’s SME credit portfolio, started in late 2019, reached 19bn reais by March 2021. The bank uses AI to automate credit analysis, thereby allowing it to offer solutions tailored to the risk profile of eachclient.“Our belief is that we will continue to benefit from financial and capital markets deepening, as well as disintermediation in Brazil, while improving efficiency over time,” says Roberto Sallouti, CEO of BTG Pactual. “We expect to grow our top line faster than revenues, thanks to the investments in building our digital retail platform. We remain focused on ensuring excellence and the expansion of our digital product offering, enriching both our institutional and retail clients’ experience.” Canada ScotiabankAs customer expectations continue to rise, particularly for digital products and services, banks must constantly refresh what they offer, and Scotiabank certainly has not rested on its laurels with digital innovation.Earlier this year, it launched Scotia Smart Investor, a comprehensive digital investment advice platform. A key differentiating feature being that it supports a genuinely omnichannel experience, with customers able to use Smart Investor independently and as part of support interactions, including in branch or via contact centre.Another initiative to improve customer experiences is its partnership with cinema chain, Cineplex Entertainment, to launch Scene+ in December 2021, aiming to be one of Canada’s largest loyalty programmes. Scotiabank customers can earn points by spending on one of eight eligible debit or credit products, as well as via the Scene+ card, with points redeemable on entertainment, travel and shopping across a range of partners.It has always been a bank that seeks to make an impact far beyond its immediate products and services, and that has continued over the past 18 months. This includes via the Scotiabank Women Initiative, which in May 2022 increased its commitment to deploy capital to women-owned and women-led businesses in Canada to C$10bn ($7.4bn) by 2025. This builds on its initial $3bn deployment, which was fulfilled last year. In January 2021, it also launched ScotiaRISE: a 10-year, $500m global initiative to promote economic resilience among disadvantaged groups.Brian Porter, Scotiabank president and CEO, says: “At Scotiabank, we have built a world-class culture and a winning team that is high-performing, supportive and inclusive. Our team is committed to supporting our customers and clients by giving them the best advice as we roll out new services and tools to help them through this challenging economic period.” Cayman Islands Cayman National BankCayman National Bank (CNB) distinguishes itself among its peers with its sustainability plans. The lender is now part of the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, a partnership between the UN Environment Programme and the financial sector to support sustainable development.The bank has integrated environmental, social and governance goals into its decision-making process. Through the Principle of Responsible Banking strategic initiative, it has focused specifically on the pillars of gender equality, climate change and renewable energy.CNB is already advanced with regards to gender equality, with women representing 42% of leadership roles. The goal is to continue to develop gender diversification across the company with a specific focus on corporate-level executives. It is also working on providing guidance to female entrepreneurs via a partnership with the Cayman Islands Centre for Business Development.Through this partnership it provides financial assistance for female-led businesses, as well as taking part in a number of initiatives to encourage female entrepreneurs.Moreover, CNB has enhanced communication for green lending opportunities through its new GreenLiving campaign. Opportunities include lending for energy efficiency products such as insulation, solar panels, LED fixtures, and hybrid and electric vehicles.With regards to digital banking, in September 2021 the lender launched an online banking platform which includes the bank’s first mobile app. The platform offers a number of features such as real-time credit card payments and biometric two-factor authentication to make payment transactions more secure and efficient. Cayman National Online is free to access for customers.In June 2022, CNB launched a security enhancement tool for cardholders, 3D Secure. The protocol is designed to be an additional security layer for online credit and debit card transactions. The bank’s goal is to reduce e-commerce fraud by 75% annually. Chile Banco de Crédito e Inversiones ChileWhile Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (BCI) Chile has strong and growing presence in the Chilean market, the lender has recently shown its international ambitions. Back in 2015, it had acquired Miami-based banking group City National Bank. Last year, it established a subsidiary in Peru to consolidate its presence in that market and began operating early this year. International operations now account for more than 35% of total assets.Eugenio Von Chrismar Carvajal, BCI’s CEO, has ambitious plans for the bank. “Our goal is to become a leader in the Latin American market, with a base of more than 10 million customers in the next two years, and to compete on equal footing with the leaders of the US banking sector,” he says.Aside from international expansion, the lender has been busy working on its technology architecture, with an investment of more than $400m in recent years. Funds have been deployed to treble the computer processing capacity and increase cloud usage by 4.2 times since 2018, among other initiatives.BCI is strengthening its digital proposition, investing $400m in recent years. Today, 70% of its sales are digital. The bank is unifying the issuer bases of the bank and recently acquired digital wallet Mach, Servicios Financieros, which jointly have about five million users, and expanding the scale and acceptance network using partnerships with third parties. It aims to become a fully Mach digital bank and in 2021 migrated three million users to a new banking core.In 2022, BCI launched several services including Mach Junior, an account for people under 18 years old, loyalty programme BCI Plus and savings account Cuenta Futuro.In the past year, the bank has also ramped up its commitment to sustainability. The bank issued seven green bonds in 2021 and made the first public placement by a Chilean bank in the Swiss market. In 2022, it adhered to the Principles of Responsible Banking of the UN Environment Programme. Colombia BBVA ColombiaBBVA Colombia leverages a strong history in its home market and has been busy bringing a number of innovative solutions to market over the past 18 months. Despite operating in an environment marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the group increased net profits by 91% in 2021 and has continued developing new solutions to cater to corporate clients.For example, BBVA Empresas is a mobile application for corporate clients that allows them to carry out their most frequent financial operations and transactions in a more efficient way online. The app also allows users to monitor business sales from a smartphone. It aims to improve the customer experience when making transfers, simplifying steps and registering additional codes and passwords.BBVA also launched a point-of-sale linked loan. The tool is especially useful for small and medium-sized enterprises, which are not normally eligible for traditional financing because of their size. Customers can request a loan linked to their sales, which is a source of immediate funding for these companies.Digitalisation of traditional banking services is a priority for the lender. BBVA Colombia is introducing a digital version of libranzas, payroll-deductible loans repaid directly by the borrower’s employer to the lender.The bank has introduced Banca Wealth to offer high-value customers a preferential service. With this solution, the bank’s executives can advise customers in a more efficient way because the system allows a 360-degree view of the customer’s holding information, including balance, funds and securities.“At BBVA, we continue to develop new solutions for our customers, both individuals and businesses. For our individual customers, we have optimised features, such as interactions on the voice channel, and expanded our offering of digital products and services. Our biggest responsibility is to accelerate the transition towards a decarbonised economy,” says Mario Pardo, country manager at BBVA Colombia. Costa Rica Banco Nacional de Costa RicaBanco Nacional de Costa Rica’s strategic objective is to become the pre-eminent financial conglomerate in the domestic market by offering the best customer experience while attaining a high level of profitability — a commendable aspiration and it is well on its way to achieving it.The lender has worked hard to transform and adopt a sustainable business model. In particular, it aims for a ‘triple utility’ with social welfare, environmental protection and shared wealth as objectives.Within this context, the bank is developing products to support its customers in their sustainable development. At the same time, its products and services are targeted towards the different population groups in the country. It has strengthened its financial education strategy to combat the over-indebtedness experienced by various segments of the population.Banco Nacional, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Costa Rica, has implemented several technological improvements last year. Citizens can use a new authentication model that allows them to access banking, government and commercial services through a digital certificate. This service provides greater security to clients at a time when Costa Rica faces significant cyber security challenges. The system also supports the country’s financial inclusion efforts.To support its ambitions, Banco Nacional is investing in modernising its technological infrastructure. It has developed new functionalities for its clients, including a business-to-business platform that allows corporate customers to make payments in real time to suppliers and clients. It is also working on a project to disburse lines of credit through its internet banking channels.The lender has decided to maintain several initiatives developed during the Covid-19 pandemic to support its clients and mitigate a potential increase in non-performing loans. It has reinvented the loan collection process by automating data collection and credit risk analysis by customer segmentation. It has also worked to offer products and services tailored to the specific needs of each client. Dominican Republic Banco Popular DominicanoBanco Popular Dominicano has made huge efforts to enable a return to normality in the country following the Covid-19 pandemic, while still managing a 42% increase in net profits in 2021. For example, it was the first and only bank in the Dominican Republic to allow clients to formalise claims through its mobile app, without the need to visit a branch office.The lender is committed to expanding its portfolio of sustainable financing products as a part of its adherence to the UN Principles of Responsible Banking. As such, it has developed Hazte ECO, a portfolio of sustainable financing solutions for both corporates and individuals. In addition, last year it increased the number of loans for hybrid and electric vehicles by 168% compared with 2020. The lender also offers green leasing to finance the installation of solar panels and acquisition of electric vehicles.In March 2022, Banco Popular approved the issuance of a green bond as a public offering debt of 2.5bn pesos ($46m) to support the country’s transition to net-zero emissions. The funds will be mainly directed to financing new renewable energy, electromobility and eco-efficiency projects.The bank is well on its digital transformation journey and modernising its products and services. It was the first to offer authentication based on biometrics, which is used in processes such as onboarding or creating a profile online. It also added a number of features to its app.Importantly, Banco Popular is actively working to increase financial inclusion in the Dominican Republic, where just 55% of the population have access to savings accounts. According to the National Survey of Financial Inclusion of the Banco Central de la República Dominicana, only two out of 10 people use a budget or record their income and expenses to plan their family finances. To address this issue, Banco Popular has developed a free online education platform offering content on financial literacy. Ecuador ProdubancoProdubanco has been increasing its assets, deposits and loans in the past year despite a challenging environment. The lender, active in the country since 1978, has taken the lead in the corporate segment, but also serves all segments of the market. It is ranked second in Ecuador in loans, with a 12.4% market share. In 2021, its net profits jumped by 141%.The bank accelerated its digital transformation during the Covid-19 pandemic with the aim of making the service 100% available to its customers, while improving the experience in various service channels. It has launched several services and products over the past 18 months, including a new digital account that allow clients to perform a number of operations online.It also released a modern version of its app with a new design and added functionality, such as the incorporation of geo-referencing technology in the onboarding process. The update allows clients to create a Produbanco account on their smartphones in a few minutes. With the app, clients can do most transactions quickly and without the need to visit a branch.However, given its deep history and physical presence in the country, the bank is not planning to go fully digital in all segments. Instead, it believes that an ongoing transformation from physical to “phygital” — a mix of physical and digital — will best serve its clients for the foreseeable future.Produbanco has 37 digital offices, which have a self-service area equipped with cutting-edge technological devices, such as digital customer service kiosks which allow communication with bank officers via video conference, and multifunction ATMs.Recently, the bank carried out a renewal of its entire ATM network nationwide. The new ATMs have innovations such as touch screens and improved transaction menu options. El Salvador Banco AgrícolaIn September 2021, El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender. Banco Agrícola was quick to respond and adapt to the change in regulation. It began accepting bitcoin across its network for payments toward loans, credit cards, and merchant goods and services.Since then, more than 10,000 bitcoin payments have been made, worth an estimated $420,000 in accumulated billing by the end of June 2022.Within its payments portfolio, Banco Agrícola has incorporated Garmin and Fitbit to allow clients to make payments using credit and debit cards through their smartwatch in a quick and efficient way.More generally, the bank has focused on the digital transformation of its banking services. It strengthened its e-banking and mobile banking channels, while expanding its range of digital products and solutions. Following these developments, it accumulated 388,000 active digital clients as of the end of 2021.In 2020, Banco Agrícola launched the Wompi payment gateway to allow businesses to access an alternative means of payment and increase digital sales. Since its inception, Wompi has billed more than $32m from more than 400,000 transactions. Wompi is also a point-of-sale system, with users able to receive contactless payments through their smartphones.Banco Agrícola adheres to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a joint initiative between the UN Global Compact and UN Women, which offers a comprehensive framework for women’s empowerment in the workplace and the community.Last year, it also launched a new line of credit, Crédito Mujer Futuro, to support female-led business. As of June 2022, 178 credits had been granted worth a total amount of more than $2.7m. Guatemala Banco IndustrialBanco Industrial, the largest bank in Guatemala by assets, has maintained stable growth in recent years. Total assets’ compound annual growth rate has reached 9% over the past five years. The lender has been focused on increasing its presence in retail banking and offering new customer services.Despite having one of the largest distribution networks in the country, it plans to expand its presence in rural areas via third-party retail points of sale. Such efforts will also help increase banking penetration, which is relatively low in the Central American country.During the past 18 months, Banco Industrial has launched several new products and services. For example, in 2021 it rolled out Rapiremesas, a new credit tool for remittances beneficiaries. The lender is the second largest recipient of family remittances in Guatemala, with a 31.6% market share in 2021.In addition, customers can now transfer cash to any person in their contact list by entering their phone number on the mobile banking app; the recipient can then collect the money from the nearest ATM using an authorisation code.The bank has also expanded its mobile banking app functionalities. This year, customers can perform several additional actions through the app, including credit card request and activation, temporary lock and setting spending limits.“Digitalisation in Banco Industrial has taken an important role in the bank’s retail market penetration strategy, as more banking products and services can reach customers where banking infrastructure is scarce,” says Luis Lara Grojec, Banco Industrial’s CEO. “We will continue to focus on the small and medium-sized enterprise segment, as we recognise they are the growth engine of the Guatemalan economy. Part of our future plans are also to improve our environmental, social and governance strategy.” Honduras Banco del PaísBanco del País (Banpaís) has a strong presence in Honduras; it is the fourth largest lender by total assets. It increased its assets by 17.8% in 2021 and its profits jumped by 98.8%. As of April 2022, it had the largest housing portfolio, with a market share of 17.9%.Digitalisation has been a priority for Banpaís throughout 2021 and the lender has been working on improving customer experience and online banking services. In the past year, it has worked on several digital marketing campaigns to promote the use of electronic channels.The mobile application was enriched with new features including the use of bio-metric recognition and push notifications. Its online banking platform was overhauled with a new interface, better user experience and adaptability to different device screens.Among the products launched in the past 18 months was the Game Card credit card, with discounts and unique benefits for online purchases; the new Mastercard brand credit cards, with 10% discount at gas stations nationwide; and Visa Distribución Island Shipping Banpaís Credit Card, tailored for businesses.In 2021, the bank’s app usage increased by 84%. In addition, there was a 12% increase in online banking use among business customers.Aside from digital improvements, the bank has focused on its corporate social responsibility strategy. Banpaís has a longstanding commitment to supporting the local population. It has formed alliances with a number of organisations including Asociación Hondureñas al Rescate de los Valores y la Moral and the organisation for the protection of birds, Pro-Alas.The bank contributes to the country’s financial literacy efforts via the financial education programme, Dinero Inteligente. The bank is also a member of Corporación Bi, which leads and supports the development of Central America. Jamaica ScotiabankIn January 2022, Scotiabank Jamaica launched the Scotiabank Women Initiative to support women-led and female-owned businesses in Jamaica. The programme helped provide these businesses with greater access to capital via a fund that was valued at J$3bn ($20m) at launch and allows women-owned businesses to access up to J$100m.The programme also offers career development resources, including free education workshops aimed at increasing financial management and technical expertise. The final component of the programme is advisory assistance to mentor women.Digital transformation, with a focus on online banking and mobile app platforms, is a key priority for the bank. Over the past 18 months, the improvements made to its online channels have resulted in a 25% increase in the number of digitally active customers and a more than 70% increase in online transactions.Such an increase in digital adoption is also the result of better online banking services. Existing customers can now open a chequing or a savings account online, with more than 50% of accounts currently opened digitally. New customers can start opening an account online and then visit the branch to complete the onboarding, if need be. Security has also improved thanks to a new fraud detection tool that allows the bank to track customers’ usual spending patterns.With the launch of an account information sharing feature, customers can now easily share their bank account details via email, WhatsApp and other popular platforms directly from the app to make peer-to-peer payments easy and error-free.“In the coming year, we will continue to execute on our strategy of putting our customers first and making it easy for our customers to do business with us and further leverage digital to deliver more personalised financial solutions to our customers,” says Audrey Tugwell Henry, president and CEO of Scotia Group Jamaica. Mexico Banco Mercantil del NorteBanco Mercantil del Norte (Banorte) has outshone its peers in Mexico, a highly competitive market, to pick up the accolade as Bank of the Year for 2022. It is clearly a bank going from strength to strength, with a comprehensive digital offering and customer-centric strategy.“We want to achieve hyper-personalisation,” says Banorte’s CEO José Marcos Ramírez. “In past years, we have been investing around 13% of our total income in our technological transformation to continuously improve our self-service channels and enhance our banking operations, as well as to leverage on data and consumption habits’ information of our customers, aiming for the personalisation of services to create segments of a single client.”During 2021, Banorte accelerated the digital transformation of its traditional banking services and launched a more intuitive version of its mobile app, Banorte Móvil. The new version enables a fully digital onboarding process for several products including credit and debit cards, payroll and personal loans. In due course, auto loans and mortgages will be added. Banorte Móvil now serves 4.5 million customers, a 40% year-on-year growth.Banorte is actively seeking commercial and strategic alliances that allow it to enhance and complement its product offering and increase its competitiveness in the market. The lender has already invested in a number of digital disruptors: Clip, a Mexican mobile point-of-sale provider that enables smaller businesses to access banking products and innovative payment methods; Rappi, an on-demand delivery app through which the bank is developing the next generation of financial services; and, most recently, property technology start-up Tuhabi. Banorte is also building its own digital bank. Panama Banco Mercantil SABanco Mercantil SA (BMSA) is a leader in innovation, offering differentiated products and increased efficiency for its customers. To support its efforts, it has adapted an agile working methodology. For example, Mercantil Innovation Lab, the bank’s unit tasked with leading the innovation process, is composed of working groups focused on online banking, mobile banking, virtual assistance, onboarding processes and payment methods. The idea is to foster teamwork and create an experimental environment in which new ideas are freely expressed.The bank has evolved to incorporate robotic process automation to execute repetitive, high-volume internal tasks in a more efficient way. The result has been increased productivity and reduced operational risk. These processes have supported the management of operations in units such as compliance, credit cards, credit risk, and fraud monitoring, among others.To foster financial inclusion, BMSA recently launched Mony, a digital chequing account aimed at the unbanked population. Mony can be easily requested from any mobile device thanks to facial recognition technology. The account does not require a minimum balance and enables a number of people to access an easy-to-use product at a very low cost. The product offers a number of advanced features including the ability to make transfers via email or split payments among users.Last year, BMSA began developing a corporate sustainability strategy based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, which it believes is critical to ensure future growth.“We are very proud to be recognised by The Banker as the best bank in Panama,” says Gustavo Vollmer, chairman of the board at Mercantil Servicios Financieros Internacional. “Our franchise is continually evolving and focused on digital transformation. We are also keen on [expanding] our ESG practices, which are a fundamental pillar of our growth business model. Paraguay SudamerisSudameris has shown great resilience throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. It created a liquidity reserve in 2020 to face any potential liquidity crisis and in a second phase continued to support companies which had strong long-term plans.The bank organised proactive internal human resources management to make sure that it continued to support its clients. This was also possible thanks to a massive IT effort, allowing clients to use the bank’s digital channels.Last year, Sudameris launched the second version of its new online banking platform, which allows it to perform several services, including payments, more quickly and efficiently. Corporate clients are now benefiting from a modern online platform, which was rolled out following a two-year development stage.The bank is improving the employee experience as well. For example, Sudameris is working on a new client relationship management platform to support its staff. All these developments have been supported by a substantial increase in the lender’s IT budget.Sudameris aims to diversify its financing activities, with a strong focus on sustainability. For example, it is involved in the Paracel project, a $4bn private initiative to build a paper pulp plant, which also entails the reforestation of 250,000 hectares of trees.Sudameris is a shareholder in the project and has developed credit products for smaller landowners, cattle ranchers and farmers who dedicate part of their land to reforestation. Peru BBVA PerúBBVA has scooped the Bank of the Year award for Peru with strong fundamentals, digital innovations and a razor sharp focus on sustainability. In 2021, it expanded its Tier 1 capital base by 3.2% and its net profits jumped by 138%.Sustainability is a strategic priority for BBVA worldwide. In July 2021, the group announced a doubling of its sustainable financing commitments. It aims to channel €200bn in sustainable financing projects by 2025, twice the amount of its initial commitment in 2018.In 2021, BBVA Perú was the first bank in the country’s private financial sector to launch a green mortgage product. In addition, it was involved in a number of innovative sustainable transactions.For example, it arranged for Peruvian fishing company Tasa a $15m sustainable factoring line, a line of credit with preferential interest rates for fishery suppliers who meet responsible and sustainable management standards. It also agreed a $80m sustainable loan with Peruvian natural gas company Cálidda, with an interest rate adjustment mechanism partially based on the performance of the company’s sustainability rating.In January 2022, BBVA became the first Peruvian bank to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability MILA Pacific Alliance Index. The index is a float-adjusted market capitalisation-weighted index that measures the performance of Chilean, Colombian, Mexican and Peruvian companies according to environmental, social and governance criteria.“We are on the way to turning into a more retail-oriented bank, with significant investments in building new skills in processes, data, technology and commercial areas. The bank has experienced sustained growth in the consumer loans and credit card segments, as well as in our corporate segment. We are turning our network of branches into specialised customer advice centres, promoting digitisation and sustainability,” says Fernando Eguiluz, country manager at BBVA Perú. Puerto Rico FirstBank Puerto RicoFirstBank Puerto Rico is consolidating its leading position in the domestic market. In 2021, the bank completed the acquisition of Banco Santander Puerto Rico. In the same year, FirstBank continued to grow while operating in an increasingly competitive environment.It is now positioned as the most profitable banking franchise in Puerto Rico, with the lowest cost-to-income ratio and non-performing asset ratio. Importantly, these milestones have been achieved while sustaining a high common equity Tier 1 ratio and a strong liquidity profile.“We are very pleased to have been selected as Puerto Rico’s Bank of the Year for 2022 by The Banker. This prestigious award highlights the strength of our franchise and the deep commitment of all our colleagues to deliver an outstanding client experience while safely navigating an uncertain operating environment,” says FirstBank’s president and CEO Aurelio Alemán. “Following the successful integration of more than 150,000 customers from the recently acquired operation, we are now focused on growing market share across all core business segments and continuing to expand our digital self-service offerings.”This year, it upgraded its digital banking offering. Modernised features include a new mobile business digital banking application, which allows commercial clients to process payrolls, deposit cheques and transfer money, among other transactions.During the second quarter of 2022, FirstBank began a partnership with an unnamed fintech firm to provide a fully digital commercial lending platform for small business loans. This allows the bank to improve its market penetration in the small business segment.The bank also released its first environmental, social and governance report this year, which focuses on topics such as governance and leadership, responsible business practices, diversity, equity and inclusion, and community engagement. Trinidad and Tobago Scotiabank Trinidad and TobagoScotiabank Trinidad and Tobago (SBTT) has started to reap the results of its digital transformation journey, which is delivering improved banking experience for its customers. As of February 2022, approximately 47% of customers — a 14% increase on the previous year — were enrolled on the bank’s digital platforms. Digital transactions increased by 42% over the same period.Net profits increased by 19% in 2021, driven by digitisation and a reduced cost to serve and prudent risk management which realised a reduction in net impairment losses when compared to 2020, according to the bank.SBTT has introduced new features to make personal banking in the country easier. It has been working on a new digital onboarding process which enables customers to open an account in about 15 minutes. Customers with an existing deposit account or credit card can now open a new account using the bank’s app. This has resulted in a 156% increase in digital sales for deposit accounts and 43% increase for credit cards.Last year, the Scotia Caribbean app was enriched with additional features and now it is possible to share account details in a simple way using email, SMS or WhatsApp to make transfers. In addition, loan statements and credit card receipts are easily downloaded through the platform.The bank offers its customers enhanced security and accessibility features, including biometric sign-in. It also uses one-time passwords as a second layer of security to protect online accounts.“As we look to the future, putting customers first will remain at the forefront of everything we do, helping them be better off today and tomorrow. With competitive products, accessible, personalised services and high-quality advice, we are building stronger customer relationships, ultimately benefiting our employees and shareholders,” says Gayle Pazos, senior vice-president and managing director at Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago. Turks and Caicos Islands Scotiabank (Turks & Caicos)In the past few years, Scotiabank (Turks & Caicos) has been working on digital transformation to meet its customers’ demand and needs.The lender has continued to invest in its digital platforms and technology. The improvements to its online banking and mobile app over the past 18 months have resulted in a 6% rise in the number of customers actively using the channels and a 41% increase in online transactions.It is now easier for clients to set up transfer and payment recipients or update personal information online. Scotiabank (Turks & Caicos) has increased its security features and made improvements in fraud detection by tracking customers’ usual spend patterns to identify and block fraudulent transactions. It has also made it easier for customers to share basic bank account details via email, WhatsApp or other channels for payments.Since 2021, the lender has been working on the introduction of intelligent deposit machines across its banking network. These smart machines offer a variety of features including immediate credit on cash deposits, cash denomination options and credit card payments. This has reduced the need for the clients to visit branches and has been particularly relevant in the pandemic period.In October 2021, Scotiabank (Turks & Caicos) launched a new feature on credit cards called Scotia SelectPay. The feature allows customers to use their existing revolving credit limit to turn eligible purchases into a short-term instalment plan.“In the coming year, we will continue to expand on the improvements of both our physical and digital footprint to enhance the services that we offer to customers. Additionally, we will leverage technology to review customer trends and offer more personalised financial solutions to our customers, as we aim to maintain our position as the financial partner of choice in the Turks and Caicos Islands,” says Suzan Snaggs-Wilson, managing director of Scotiabank (Turks & Caicos). Uruguay Banco Itaú UruguayBanco Itaú Uruguay has proven its resilience in a challenging environment. The lender has grown in all areas of the business during the Covid-19 pandemic: for example, customer numbers increased by 12.8% and deposits grew 14% in 2021.The bank also kept its ambitions high with regards to expansion plans, acquiring minority stakes in Uruguayan fintech companies Prex and Paigo, in line with its strategic vision of regional expansion into digital banking. It also bought a 56% stake in Resonance Uruguay, which offers solutions for payments and online transactions.In addition to investing in burgeoning fintechs, Itaú has focused on innovation in its own products and services. The lender is working on positioning itself as a strong digital bank with a relevant multichannel strategy.“We want to keep focusing on continuous improvement, aiming at our clients’ satisfaction. Technology is a source of opportunity. We want to thrive in our relationship with fintechs. We want our bank to be close to our clients, and to offer agile, innovative, efficient, and diverse solutions at the service of people,” says André Gailey, CEO of Banco Itaú Uruguay.For example, Itaú launched Cuenta Pocket, a free and digital savings account, and increased the functionalities in its app Pagos and SuperApp Itaú. It is also now offering an online platform that allows clients to access mutual fund investment portfolios starting at $1000.As a result of these initiatives, 2021 was a record year for the digitalisation of its services: approximately 75% of credit cards, 84.2% of loans and 64.8% of accounts were acquired through digital channels.Itaú is strong in corporate banking, with a healthy relationship with the agribusiness sector. Last year, in 2021 Itaú developed a new agro segment in retail banking, with the aim of offering and developing tailored solutions for each producer, regardless of size, which allows them to overcome market fluctuations. US Citizens Financial GroupFollowing its initial public offering (IPO) in 2014 and since RBS (now NatWest) sold its final stake in 2015, Citizens has been building up its business. That growth strategy stepped up a gear in 2021 with an ambitious acquisition strategy.Notably, this included the acquisition of 80 HSBC branches on the US east coast. And hot on the heels was the purchase of New Jersey-based Investors Bank with 154 branches. These acquisitions immediately gave Citizens a top-10 deposit position in the critical New York City metropolitan market — a new market for the bank. On top if this, it added new branches in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, Washington DC, south-east Florida and across New Jersey. Together, this filled a coverage gap between the bank’s existing retail footprints and added roughly one million retail and business customers.Crucially, it has continued to prioritise excellent customer service during its growth. This includes a renewed focus on overhauling its technology, which it had historically under-invested in prior to the IPO. During the past 18 months, it has focused on its next-generation technology initiative, which has prioritised creating seamless customer experiences, delivering personalised products and services, cost efficient and modern product delivery, and improving resiliency and reliability.Reflecting on this period, Citizens’ chairman and CEO Bruce Van Saun comments: “Shifting industry economics, disruption of our traditional markets and evolving customer preferences have created the most dynamic and competitive environment I have seen over my long career as a banker.“While our strategy has been sound all along, we have moved to add scale through acquisition, invested more in digital experiences, and leveraged agile ways of working to foster innovation and increase our clock speed,” he says. “We will continue to find ways to be a trusted advisor to our customers, across consumer, small business and corporate, along their unique financial journeys.” Venezuela Mercantil Banco UniversalMercantil Banco Universal’s (MBU’s) strategic objective is remaining one of the top banks in Venezuela. As of June 2022, it had a 19.9% market share within the Venezuelan private financial system.The bank actively supports Venezuelan families and communities across the diaspora. With an estimated $2.26bn annual flow in remittances, MBU aims to offer faster, more efficient and cheaper remittance transactions, reducing the transactional costs for all the parties involved. In 2022, it embarked on a new digital remittance solution, where the funds sent from abroad can be credited into the national or foreign currency account of the client.In other developments, MBU relaunched Mercantil Móvil Personas app in December 2020; the next year MBU successfully migrated its customers and added new functionalities, such as buying and selling currencies.An updated version of Mercantil Movíl Empresas, which allows a company to carry out transactions through mobile devices, was also released. Through this app, clients can make queries and daily operations related to their businesses easily and quickly from wherever they are. The app allows customers to check balances and movements of company accounts, and make transfers between the group’s accounts, as well as to other national banks.In addition, MBU relaunched mobile payment application Tpago. The service allows retail customers to instantly send and receive mobile payments between individuals affiliated with the service. By the end of the 2021, a total of 1.98 million customers were affiliated with Tpago, through which more than 269 million transactions were recorded.“This award is a source of pride for Mercantil’s team, as The Banker has recognised our institution for three consecutive years as the best bank in Venezuela.” says Gustavo Vollmer, chairman of the board at Mercantil Servicios Financieros Internacional. “Our group has a heritage of almost a century, connecting people and servicing clients in multiple countries, and we are focused on generating experiences that create value.”
Bank of the Year Awards 2022 — Africa
Africa’s top lenders from 2022 Angola Banco de Fomento AngolaLast year was a crucial one for banks in Angola, with lenders buoyed by lower impairment costs and a landmark improvement in the country’s sovereign credit rating in September 2021, with sector profits increasing nearly fourfold for the year, according to Deloitte.Amid such an improving landscape, Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA) has been selected as the country’s Bank of the Year for 2022. Its first win in four years is in recognition of its return to profit and a series of digital improvements.BFA, which saw its credit rating improve in line with the sovereign rating, recorded profit growth in 2021 after two difficult years. Net profit increased by 74% for the year, with return on equity hitting 36.4%, comfortably higher than its pre-pandemic level. However, its cost-to-income ratio increased, as did its non-performing loan ratio.The bank has pressed on with its digital transformation process, driven by an internal team dedicated to the software development cycle. For example, they have developed solutions to manage and digitalise foreign currency purchase processes and credit sales. On the systems infrastructure side, the bank has established two Tier 3 compliant datacentres, enabling instant transactions and an overall availability of 99.982%.The main digital milestone of the year was the launch of an upgraded banking app, making BFA one of the first banks in the country to offer digital onboarding with no need to visit a branch. Other features of the app include card management, the ability set spending limits, and peer-to-peer transfers to other BFA customers. Since launching in late February 2022, the new app has enjoyed more than 45,000 downloads. Benin Ecobank Benin“Our focus on delivering innovative products, services and solutions across multiple channels — while ensuring the best possible customer experience — is paying off,” says Lazare Noulekou, managing director of Ecobank Benin. “It is largely thanks to this strategy that Ecobank Benin won Bank of the Year, which is a great honour.”In addition to the bank’s strong financial performance in 2021, the judges were also impressed by a series of payment product upgrades launched amid fierce competition with regional mobile money players.Last year saw Ecobank slash fees on its Xpress Cash mobile banking service, which enables customers to generate a withdrawal code via the bank’s mobile app enabling card-free cash withdrawals from ATMs or Xpress agents across Benin and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Amid growing competition from regional mobile money operators including Wave and Orange Money, the bank has reduced fees for Xpress Cash to 1%, including tax, across the WAEMU region.Other product highlights for the review period include a new distribution and pricing strategy for the bank’s CashXpress prepaid bank cards, which are now available across a wider range of retailers than the bank’s agents network. Previously exclusively available at a price of CFA Fr11,000 ($17.26), new denominations of CFA Fr1500 and CFA Fr3000 are now available. The new tariff and distribution has led to a significant increase in sales and transactions for the product.On the financial side, Ecobank’s Benin operations saw an 8% increase in Tier 1 capital and a 12% growth in assets, with return on equity recovering in 2021 to within touching distance of 2019’s figure of 28%. Non-performing loans, meanwhile, improved from 11% to 10.2% during the year. Botswana Bank GaboroneBank Gaborone has once again been named Bank of the Year for Botswana, in recognition of its strong finances, corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives and product advances, after losing its crown to First National Bank in 2021.Among the bank’s notable product launches during the review period was its Card-2-Card payment solution. Launched in May 2022, the service enables customers to send money using only a 16-digit Visa card number. The solution uses Visa Direct technology, enabling the transfer of funds without following the normal clearing rules of the Botswana Automated Clearing House.Bank Gaborone has also partnered with mining companies Debswana and Morupule to finance citizen-owned companies, as part of Botswana’s Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme, in a bid to create jobs and build sustainable businesses. For the Debswana initiative, a supplier development programme established under Bank Gaborone’s wholesale banking business unit is designed to address the issue of inaccessibility to financing by citizen suppliers, increasing meaningful participation in the supply chain and subsequent ecosystem.The bank’s CSI initiatives during the period include its commitment to diabetes relief via the Bank Gaborone Diabetes Apple Project. As well as ongoing fundraising, the bank hosted free diabetes testing at its branches for both staff and the public in 2022, as well as promoting a five-kilometre walk to encourage people to stay fit by exercising. The bank also contributed to the Down’s Syndrome Association of Botswana.Finances for the period were solid, with a 9% increase in both assets and Tier 1 capital. After a static 2020, net profits increased by 11%, with return on equity unchanged on 2021 levels. The cost-to-income ratio worsened slightly, rising from 63% to 67% during the period, while non-performing loans improved from 6.2% to 6%. Burkina Faso UBA Burkina FasoUnited Bank for Africa (UBA) has retained its title of Bank of the Year for Burkina Faso for the second consecutive year, with impressive financials complemented by accelerated account openings and digital service upgradesThe bank recorded a 70.4% increase in net profits in local currency terms in 2021 (during which, the West African franc depreciated by about 10% versus the US dollar), with Tier 1 capital and assets increasing by 2.6% and 17%, respectively. Non-performing loans increased from 0.5% to 2.6% during the year, but remain comfortably below their pre-pandemic level of 4.4%, while the cost-to-income ratio improved for the second consecutive year and now stands at 60.8%.“The unprecedented rise in inflation, the high appreciation of the US dollar conversion rate, along with the political challenges in Burkina Faso, have led to a change in the strategy of the bank,” says UBA Burkina Faso’s managing director Julien Kouassi.“We have readjusted our strategy by putting a strong focus on providing finance to the government to mitigate the inflation cost through subsidies granted to farmers, a drastic reduction of our digital products fees, and making ‘Leo’, our virtual banking assistant, available via almost all social media platforms.”UBA has been on a customer recruitment drive in recent years, via a series of initiatives including youth banking offerings, rapid onboarding for employees and civil servants, and the promotion of mobile banking via USSD (also known as ‘quick code’) feature phones for parts of the country where internet access is unreliable and expensive. Thanks to such initiatives, the bank recorded more than 78,000 account openings during 2021 — nearly treble the number recorded in 2020.The bank also continues to make a social impact via its TEF entrepreneurship programme — a business project competition in which the winners are coached and rewarded with funding for their project. The programme has been expanding in recent years, with around 120 Burkinabe involved in 2022. Cameroon Société Générale CamerounFor the first time in four years, Société Générale Cameroun (SG Cameroun) has been named as Bank of the Year in Cameroon, in recognition of its steady financial performance, together with the launch of its new customer relationship model and its impressive performance on the environmental, social and governance front.SG Cameroun’s Tier 1 capital increased by 19.3% during 2021, with assets growing by 14.2% during the same period. Net profit rose by just 5.2%, with return on equity slipping from 17.5% to 16.1%. Costs remain elevated, with the cost-to-income ratio rising slightly from 49.3% to 49.8%, while non-performing loans increased from 10.7% to 11.6%.The bank launched its new relationship model programme in late 2021, with a view to develop an omnichannel distribution model via both physical and digital channels in a bid to better serve its different customer segments, especially high-income and mass market customers. Alongside the launch of the new programme came Société Générale’s group-wide decision to close its African mobile money service Yup, which had struggled to gain traction across its footprint on the continent.As part of its ‘SogeCollet Retail’ scheme, the bank launched a self-service banking branch in the Douala Grand Mall in 2021, with a further upgrade of its facilities in 2022.In May 2022, the bank announced a solar energy programme in conjunction with Electricité de France, in a bid to reduce its carbon emissions by around 2000 tonnes, with branches in Bali, Yaoundé, Hippodrome, Ngaoundéré, Garoua, Maroua and Foumban selected for the initial rollout. Also on the environmental front, the SG Cameroun approved a CFA Fr342m ($537,000) loan to the NaMé Recycling company, as part of the bank’s Positive Impact Finance programme. Cape Verde Banco InteratlânticoBanco Interatlântico (BI) has retained its title of Bank of the Year for Cape Verde, registering improvements in its financial performance in the midst of ongoing economic challenges in the west African archipelago, alongside a new partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and a new digital credit workflow.While the economy returned to growth in 2021 after a sharp recession the previous year, a slower-than-expected recovery in tourism revenues, coupled with higher commodity prices as a result of the war in Ukraine, continue to put pressure on gross domestic product growth. Nevertheless, BI has weathered the storm well, with 2021 profits largely unchanged on the previous year, compared with a 41% drop in 2020. Non-performing loans reduced sharply from 9.1% in 2020 to 4.5% in 2021, with costs also registering a slight improvement.The bank agreed credit lines worth €10m with the EIB in December 2021, designed to benefit local corporates, thereby boosting the bank’s profile in the sector. On the consumer loans side, the bank launched a new service model for vehicle financing, directly working with car retailers in a first for Cape Verde banks. The new model has seen significant growth since its launch in December 2021.Also on the loans front, the bank launched a fully digital credit workflow in April 2022, encompassing front-to-end automation from the clients’ credit request to the disbursement of loans. The new solution has seen time-to-cash and cost-to-serve amounts reduce significantly since its introduction, with most processes digitised ahead of an anticipated government implementation of digital signatures.Since early 2022, BI has adopted the environmental, social and governance policies of its parent company in Portugal, which the bank hopes will further enhance its international reputation. Chad UBA ChadUnited Bank for Africa (UBA) has dominated Chad’s banking landscape for several years, and retains its title of Bank of the Year for 2022. The country’s second-largest lender by assets enjoyed a strong financial recovery in 2021, and impressed the judges with its physical branch expansion programme and internal reorganisation.After posting a 66% drop in net profits in 2020, UBA’s bottom line recovered strongly in 2021, increasing by 240%, with return on equity increasing to 15.8% — higher than the pre-pandemic figure of 15.1%. Cost-to-income ratio also saw an improvement for the year, even as non-performing loans rose sharply from 2.3% to 8%.“Driven by our vision to be the undisputed leader in African services, on our continent and in the world, all our strategies are based on our unique and special attention to our customers,” says UBA Chad’s CEO Noubasra Natolban. “We are developing projects that aim to bring us closer to the population through financial education. These projects also aim to refine our technology initiatives to improve the customer experience.”The bank’s commitment to boosting financial inclusion via both physical and digital means was on display once again during the review period, with the launch of two new physical branches, one in N’Djamena and one in Abéché, with four more branches under construction as The Banker went to press.On the digital front, the bank continued with the development of its UBA app; among the new features recently introduced is the ability for customers to link wallets from mobile money firms to their accounts without having to visit a branch. The past year has also seen further upgrades to the Leo virtual banking assistant, available over WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Apple’s Business Chat. Comoros Exim Bank ComoresFor the second consecutive year, Exim Bank Comores has been awarded the title of Bank of the Year for Comoros, in recognition of its steady financial improvement and its investment in its sister operations in Uganda.Exim Bank continues to steadily rebuild its finances after returning to profit in 2019 (after posting a loss due to the implementation of IFRS 9 provisioning the previous year), posting its third consecutive annual increase in net profits. Tier 1 capital and assets increasing by 30.6% and 18%, respectively. While the cost-to-income ratio worsened, increasing from 53.7% to 59.4%, non-performing loans continued to decline.During the review period, Exim Bank Comores invested $1.8m in the banking group’s Ugandan subsidiary via an equity participation scheme. The group entered Uganda in 2016, acquiring the Ugandan government’s majority stake in Imperial Bank Uganda before rebranding it to Exim Bank Uganda.Back in Comoros, the bank unveiled its MyExim app, enabling customers to view account balances in real time, download statements and access their account details. The bank is set to become the first commercial bank in the country to provide an e-tax payment solution, enabling customers and clearance agencies to make customs duty payments online through an e-tax portal.Exim Bank also continues to refine its market-leading remittance business by providing fast and reliable service which has improved the customer experience and gained new customers for the bank. Côte d’Ivoire Ecobank Côte d’IvoireFor the first time in 10 years, Côte d’Ivoire’s Bank of the Year award goes to Ecobank, in recognition of advances in the digital sphere (in terms of both internal upgrades and external partnerships), as well as solid financial growth.“The Bank of the Year award is a testament to our success in increasing the adoption of our solutions, training our talent and developing innovative technology that meets the needs of Ivorians and their businesses — and we will continue to do so,” says Paul-Harry Aithnard, managing director of Ecobank Côte d’Ivoire and the bank’s regional director of francophone west Africa.Ecobank has been active on the digital front with the upgrade of its Xpress mobile banking offering. The service can now be opened via USSD (also known as ‘quick codes’) by Orange and MTN mobile customers, with an increase in the number of Xpress Point agents around the country. The bank’s main smartphone app, Ecobank Mobile, has also been upgraded to offer additional bill payment services for services including Canal+.The lender also partnered with local fintech Weblogy to offer the Visa APaym app, offering an accessible payment and digital cash management for merchants in the informal sector. Other tie-ups include a strategic partnership with Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading cocoa products manufacturer, to help create an optimised and traceable payments management system, giving cacao growers banking products that are tailored to their needs.On the financial side, Ecobank reported steady growth in 2021, with a 15.7% rise in Tier 1 capital and a 4.7% increase in its overall asset base. Net profits continued their steady growth, while return on equity increased slightly from 23.4% to 23.7%. Democratic Republic of Congo RawbankIn an extremely competitive race, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest lender, Rawbank, has been named the country’s Bank of the Year for the first time since 2016. In addition to posting a strong financial recovery after plunging to a loss in 2020, the judges commended the bank for a series of key digital upgrades and product launches during the review period.A particular milestone has been the upgrade of the bank’s Illicocash app, first launched in 2017. In 2021, the bank launched Illicocash 2.0, enabling a greater range of payment options — including bank to wallet, wallet to bank, and the ability to link a bank account to the Illicocash wallet — together with international transfers and budget management. The bank has also continued to upgrade its customer relationship management systems, which have become increasingly cloud-based.“Digitisation is the new frontier for the banking sector and the only direction is innovation to bring the customer experience to the next level,” says Mustafa Rawji, Rawbank’s CEO. “Our commitment to innovation is to enhance our digital wallet Illicocash with new features that enlarge the digital ecosystem of our customers.”May 2021 saw Rawbank awarded custodian bank status, enabling it to open a securities trading room facility.Following approval from the country’s Insurance Regulatory and Control Authority in November 2021, the bank has also begun offering bancassurance products across its network, hoping to make significant strides in a country where the penetration of insurance services is less than 1%.After posting a CnFr91.7bn ($45m) loss in 2020, the bank returned to profit in 2021, with a return on equity of 15.7%, well in excess of its pre-pandemic level of 3.3%. Tier 1 capital and assets increased by 22.7% and 47%, respectively, with non-performing loans dropping to 0.65% at year-end 2021. Djibouti CAC International BankIn the face of stiff competition, CAC International has been named Djibouti’s Bank of the Year for the third consecutive year, recording solid growth in a challenging economic environment.While Djibouti’s economy rebounded in 2021 with a growth nearly 5%, port activity in the east African state remains subdued due to the ongoing conflict in neighbouring Ethiopia and ongoing Chinese trade disruptions.Against such a backdrop, CAC International delivered solid financial results in 2021, with Tier 1 capital and assets growing by 39% and 24%, respectively. Net profits increased by 51%, with return on equity rising from 15.7% in 2020 to 19.5% in 2021. Costs and non-performing loans both saw significant improvements during the year, as the bank’s digital investments continue to bear fruit.“The digitalisation of banking services is no longer an option, but an experience to the customers,” says Ahmed H Al-Dheeb, CEO of CAC International. “Whether it is long or short term, the goal is to continuously improve the customer experience with our services. [We are] embracing fintech to aim for successful development in a highly competitive market.In addition to its financial performance, the bank has upgraded its internal staff training programmes. Among the most significant areas focused on is anti-money-laundering training, with the objective of familiarising employees with money-laundering processes, together with other training regarding customer service and security awareness.On the product side, CAC International has expanded its green loans product — initially focused on boosting the consumer market for solar panels — to improve financing options for electric vehicles in the country. The bank has also rolled out a new generation of point-of-sale machines with improved connectivity, and has expanded its ATM network, enabling customers to make withdrawals in both Djibouti francs and US dollars. Egypt Ahli United Bank EgyptIn one of the continent’s most competitive categories, Egypt’s Bank of the Year accolade goes to Ahli United Bank Egypt (AUBE), in recognition of the lender’s numerous partnerships with the country’s burgeoning fintech sector, together with significant technology upgrades during the review period.“AUBE is a dynamic bank with robust product propositions, segmented offerings, technologically advanced solutions, and intelligent positioning across its target markets,” says Hala Sadek, CEO of AUBE.She continues: “The bank has accelerated its transformation strategy via the introduction of innovative digital solutions that differentiate [us] from the competition and provide clients with near real-time service.”AUBE has been actively screening and selectively participating in local and regional funds focused on Egyptian fintech. Commitments include a $2m subscription to a tech fund investing $120m in companies in the Middle East and Africa, a $1.6m investment in the first homegrown venture debt fund, together with a pipeline of seven venture capital funds with commitments ranging from $1m-$5m. The bank also has a $1m facility approved for a leading digital freight marketplace and is negotiating facilities with other local fintechs.In June 2021, AUBE launched a new corporate online banking platform, B2B Avalon. In addition to having full control on managing their accounts through effective viewing and reconciliation, it provides clients with the means to process all their day-to-day transactions, including supplier payments, payroll and trade, in an efficient and live manner.A year after launch, the bank had migrated 38% of its corporate clients to the platform. By August 2022, the monthly value of transactions processed through the online platform had reached around E£2bn ($82m) compared to E£83m in August 2021.On the retail side, the bank launched its e-account digital onboarding platform in July 2022. Equatorial Guinea Banco Nacional de Guinea EcuatorialThis year’s Bank of the Year award for Equatorial Guinea goes to Banco Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial (BANGE), in recognition of the improvement in the lender’s finances, its growing digital sales, and several initiatives designed to boost local investment and start-ups.After two years of decline, BANGE recorded a doubling of its net profits in 2021, with return on equity increasing from 6% to 13%. Asset growth also resumed, with a 21% increase for the year, even as non-performing loans ticked up from 6% to 9%. It recorded a 38% growth in digital sales in 2021 compared to growth of 12% in 2020.In January 2021, the bank established the BANGE Sociedad de Valores, a financial management and intermediation company designed to offer modern financing tools for economic actors in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, in order to diversify alternative financing sources to the banking sector.In 2021, the BANGE Business School created the BANGE Impulsa programme, a business incubator for early-stage small and micro-businesses. The first edition of the programme attracted more than 600 applications, of which 35 projects were shortlisted and 10 projects received financing.On the technology front, the bank has pressed ahead with several upgrades, including the creation of an IT security department, which is in charge of the security management of the bank’s entire technological infrastructure. It has acquired top-level equipment for monitoring the bank’s information system, in the context of preventing and detecting possible risks. Such upgrades have enabled the bank to carry out the PCI-DSS security certification, required by major payment platforms ahead of integration with their systems.Among the key products introduced by BANGE during the period were its Crédito Nomina payroll loan offering and its Banca Premier (premier banking) service for premium clients. Ethiopia Dashen BankEthiopia’s third largest lender, Dashen Bank, has been named as the country’s Bank of the Year for 2022. The award recognises the bank’s progress in the digital sphere in particular, as the country’s national digital economy strategy ushers in unprecedented changes in the local banking and telecommunications landscape.Such upheavals have led Dashen Bank to commit to a revised strategic initiative that has created a new business team under the purview of the chief digital banking officer. This has enabled the bank to identify and cement strategic partnerships with fintechs and with Ethio Mobile, the country’s largest telco, prompting the development of value propositions catering to both middle- and lower-income customer segments. One product of such partnerships is non-performing loan app DubePay, launched in collaboration with local fintech EagleLion System Technology.Building on the success of its Amole omnichannel digital platform, the bank has released Amole Lite, a lighter version that offers both an enhanced user interface and greater functionality over USSD-enabled feature phones, making it more useful to non-smartphone users.Also launched during the review period was the Amole e-commerce gateway enabling interconnection with local businesses, international card providers and major African fintechs including Flutterwave, Thunes and MFS Africa.“We are exploring opportunities for sustained growth presented by emerging trends such as industry consolidation, foreign banks entry and establishment of capital market, and the entry of telecoms into the mobile money space, among others,” says Asfaw Alemu, Dashen Bank’s CEO.At the back-end, the bank inaugurated its new Tier 3 ready datacentre, further enabling the development and deployment of new services. Gabon Orabank GabonFor the first time ever, Orabank has emerged as the winner of the Bank of the Year award for Gabon, in recognition of an internal reorganisation giving a new prominence to digital services, together with a strong performance in the bank’s finances.During the review period, the bank has undergone a reorganisation focused on a greater emphasis on digital services, previously handled from within its operations department, and has created a full digital banking department. The new department has made early strides by ramping up activity around the bank’s Carte Visa Prépayée Liberté, a prepaid Visa card, and deploying several new ATMs in strategic locations throughout the capital Libreville.The new department is also reassessing its relationship with its traditional card manufacturing partners, and has experimented with the issuance of instant and personalised cards. While the personalisation has been carried out at the bank’s back office facility during the pilot phase, Orabank is planning to offer the facilities at its branches in the suburb of Oloumi.“We will continue to improve our offering and maintain an excellent quality of products and services,” says Abdoul Younoussi, Orabank Gabon’s managing director.Another change has been the decision to remove point-of-sale terminals that have not been fully amortised from the bank’s network, with newer terminals with greater capabilities introduced in their place.Orabank recorded a strong financial performance during 2021, following a difficult year. Following an 11.6% contraction in 2020, the bank’s asset base grew by 54.3%, with Tier 1 capital increasing by 28.4%. Return on equity increased to 14.9% from 9%, thanks to a doubling of net profits. Non-performing loans remain elevated at 23%, although this represents a drop from 2020’s figure of 29.3%. Meanwhile, the bank’s cost-to-income ratio improved from 56.6% in 2020 to 44.7% in 2021. Ghana Fidelity Bank GhanaIn a hotly contested category, the Bank of the Year award for Ghana is awarded to Fidelity Bank, the country’s fifth-largest lender, in recognition of its solid financial performance and varied digital initiatives.A key highlight for the year was the establishment of the Fidelity Transformation Office, as part of efforts to accelerate the development of the bank’s digital channels. The new office has responsibility for initiatives including straight-through processing optimisation, cost optimisation, branch transformation, risk management, and digital product development, with key channels including WhatsApp banking (including the Kukua banking assistant) and the Fidelity Mobile app.One of the bank’s key milestones for the year was the launch of its proprietary Bancassurance Origination Portal, an online onboarding portal that forms part of the bank’s aspiration to build and promote digital service wraps on alternative channels to encourage self-service. Features of the platform include a completely paperless workflow process, two-factor authentication security and an easy-to-navigate user interface designed to reduce application completion fatigue.As digital financial services uptake continues to soar in the country, the judges also noted Fidelity’s financial literacy initiative, in conjunction with the UN Capital Development Fund. The service, delivered via an instant voice response platform, has reached more than 38,000 customers thus far.In response to the government’s financing needs, Fidelity arranged the issuance of 1.2bn cedis ($83m) worth of structured notes in 2021. The bank’s maiden negotiated certificate of deposit issuance was oversubscribed by 189%, with the bank raising 47m cedis against a target of 25m cedis.After a difficult 2020, Fidelity increased its net profits by 35% in 2021, with return on equity improving to 30.5% from 26.5%. The bank’s asset base, which slipped back in 2020, grew by 44% during 2021. Guinea UBA GuineaUnited Bank for Africa (UBA) Guinea has been awarded the country’s Bank of the Year accolade for the second year running. Facing strong competition, the lender prevailed thanks to an impressive all-round performance.The bank continues to rebuild its finances after returning to profit in 2020, with return on equity increasing to 36% in 2021 from 31% the year previous. Assets grew by 3% for the year, while the cost-to-income ratio improved from 64% to 48%, even as non-performing loans edged higher.UBA Guinea benefited during the year from a reorganisation of its business lines, enabling it to better meet the needs of its targeted consumer segments. The bank has replaced its standard individual current account with product offerings targeting three separate income segments. The bank credits these new packages as significantly contributing to account openings in 2021, with average monthly openings rising from 1000 to 4000, with deposits growing by $29m during the year.In addition, the bank launched three different types of accounts, namely the Diaspora account (targeting Guineans living outside of the country), the Future account (a package of products specially designed for children under 18) and the Ambition account (a savings account from which six-monthly withdrawals are permitted).On the digital product front, UBA Guinea introduced new features to its mobile banking app, including personal financial management tools and card management controls. The bank also upgraded its point-of-sale terminals to offer contactless payments.“In the coming year, we will leverage on our digital platforms, revamp our digital marketing, and differentiate our product services from the competition, while remaining customer-centric and placing our customers at the centre of all business decisions,” says UBA Guinea’s CEO Antoine Cherif. Guinea-Bissau Orabank Guinea-BissauOrabank has been awarded the title of Bank of the Year for Guinea Bissau for the second consecutive year, in recognition of its stable finances and the expansion of its physical network.After narrowly avoiding a recession during the first phase of the Covid-19 crisis, Guinea Bissau’s economy saw a strong recovery in 2021 on the back of a record cashew crop, a more stable political atmosphere and the easing of pandemic lockdowns.Orabank Guinea-Bissau’s asset base grew by 34% during the year, with Tier 1 capital increasing by two thirds. Net profit growth was smaller at 7%, with return on equity dropping from 22% to 15% as a result. The cost-to-income ratio rose slightly during the year but remains below the pre-pandemic level, while non-performing loans edged a little higher.On the digital front, Orabank introduced a bank-to-wallet service in conjunction with local telco Orange. The service allows customers to link their bank accounts to their Orange Money account, enabling easy transfers between the two. In terms of its physical network, Orabank opened a new branch in the eastern sector of Bula, taking its overall number of branches to eight.“During the first half of 2023, we will continue the deployment of our digital project by launching our omnichannel platform KEAZ, together with WhatsApp banking,” says Bilaly Diarra, Orabank Guinea Bissau’s managing director.Among the other highlights of the year for Orabank was the acquisition of a licence to locally print prepaid Visa cards, for the benefit of both its own customers and those outside its network. Prior to acquiring the licence, the bank was reliant on prepaid cards from its sister company in Togo. Being able to print its own cards has resulted in the bank managing to collect 100% of the commissions from the distribution of the cards, thereby boosting its overall profits. Kenya Equity BankIn a very competitive market, Equity Bank has been named as Bank of the Year for Kenya for the first time since 2019, in recognition of its capacity building programmes for businesses in Kenya, alongside its new digital solution for local merchants.Equity Bank in Kenya is one of the key participants in its parent Equity Group’s Eastern and Central Africa Recovery and Resilience plan, launched in March 2022, which will make a total of Ks678bn available ($5.6bn) to five million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and 25 million individual borrowers across the region during a five-year period.Beyond this landmark initiative, the bank continues to record progress with its Young Africa Works Programme. Established in collaboration with the Kenyan government and the Mastercard Foundation, the programme aims to create 810,000 jobs over a five-year period by working with MSMEs via training and mentorship programmes, access to finance, digitisation and ecosystem banking within the wider value chain.The number of people to benefit from the programme increase by over 60,000 in 2021, and has disbursed nearly half a million loans to MSMEs with a value of Ks172bn since its launch in 2019, improving their access to digital financial services.On the product side, Equity Bank launched its One Equity Till Number payment channel in early 2021, enabling businesses to receive payments for goods and services from any mobile money wallet or bank account. The product contributed to a 29% rise in deposits booked in 2021 compared with the previous year, with the cost of deposits reducing from 2.4% to 2.3% during the period. The value of the bank’s digital transactions increased by 20% in 2021, to Ks6.24tn. Liberia UBA LiberiaUnited Bank for Africa (UBA) has once again been crowned as Liberia’s Bank of the Year, in recognition of its strong finances and new products in the billing and remittance space.The bank launched a new remittances product in collaboration with US-based fintech HammerPay, offering local and cross-border remittances in both Liberian and US dollars. The service — available on both smartphones and USSD-based feature phones — also enables users to make payments via virtual cards, and allows for transfers between bank accounts and digital wallets.Also in the digital space, UBA Liberia has enhanced its e-commerce service platform with an instant bill payment solution, enabling customers to pay bills and buy goods online both locally and internationally. Features include receipt of payments in different currencies, customised and downloadable reports, 24/7 accessibility over the internet anywhere in the world, with multiple payment channel options including USSD, mobile money, direct debit, card and QR codes.“UBA Liberia is focusing on the development of tailor-made products and services that will serve the basic financial needs of customers at their comfort zones,” says the bank’s CEO Nkechi Joyce Arizor.“We will continue to point our customers towards the benefit of using virtual cards, wallets and trade platforms, while ensuring that they continue to enjoy comfortable, easy, secure and flexible payment experiences at every point of their business transactions.”UBA Liberia experienced healthy growth in 2021 amid a broad recovery in the economy, with Tier 1 capital and assets growing by 24% and 20%, respectively. Net profits increased by 75%, with return on equity rising from 17.6% to 24.9% during the year. Non-performing loans remain elevated compared with pre-pandemic levels, but decreased from 24.1% to 22.1%. Meanwhile, the cost-to-income ratio continued to improve, dropping from 60.3% in 2020 to 46.4% in 2021. Madagascar Société Générale MadagasikaraThe first Bank of the Year award for Madagascar to be awarded in more than 10 years goes to Société Générale Madagasikara. While the country exited recession in 2021, several economic challenges remain, not least the impact of a particularly deadly cyclone season in 2022. The bank wins plaudits for its improved financial performance, green energy initiatives, and the Soafone scheme to boost internet access.Société Générale has burnished its green credentials in Madagascar via its partnership with Bamboo Capital, the World Bank and the Malagasy government for the co-management of the country’s $40m off-grid market development fund. Since the fund’s launch, $14m of grants have been allocated, with around $1.2m distributed thus far. Société Générale’s involvement in the fund comes after it arranged the country’s first energy transition project in October 2020.The bank’s net profits rose by 14% in 2021 after a static 2020, with return on equity increasing from 42% to 45%. Assets grew by 16% and Tier 1 capital increased by 8%, while cost efficiency and asset quality showed slight improvements.In a bid to boost the take-up of digital financial services — and to improve internet access to the internet in a country where penetration is just 2.1% — the bank launched its Soafone phone purchasing scheme. The programme enables customers to acquire an Infinix Hot 10i Android smartphone (pre-loaded with the bank’s SG Connect app) at Société Générale branches, for 12 monthly payments of Ar 54,000 ($12.63) including tax.The Soafone scheme runs alongside other digital initiatives within the bank, including a cheque scanning service for corporate customers, the rollout of wi-fi in Société Générale branches to encourage the usage of app-based banking, and the launch in 2021 of the Aki chatbot. Malawi Standard Bank MalawiStandard Bank Malawi has been crowned as the country’s 2022 Bank of the Year in recognition of several digital initiatives, underpinned by its future-ready transformation programme.The internal initiative has seen the bank create a single unified digital platform for service provision to its clients, via solutions that are both proprietary and delivered in partnership with others. The transformation programme has also seen a reorganisation of the bank along client segmentation lines, serving consumer and high-net-worth clients, business and commercial clients, and corporate and investment banking customers.Among the bank’s key recent digital milestones have been the launch of its Moby customer onboarding system, which enables customers to open accounts and transact digitally at the bank’s representation points.Another highlight has been the revamp of lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals, with a new algorithm-based product that offers unsecured loan facilities to clients based on their account turnover. The new digital loan facility product has been a success, with more than 56% of all personal loans being disbursed through digital channels over the past year, representing more than 50% of the bank’s personal lending portfolio.Also of note is the bank’s new financial services ecosystem, Unayo, that connects people, businesses, and communities. The platform enables customers to remit money to friends, families and businesses, pay bills, receive wages and offer merchant solutions. Available on either smartphone or USSD, around 130,000 customers were onboarded to the platform in the first few months following its launch.Standard Bank Malawi reported solid financial growth during 2021, with assets and Tier 1 capital growing by 9.4% and 30.7%, respectively. While return on equity slipped from 22% to 21%, cost to income improved from 57% in 2020 to 52% in 2021. Mali Ecobank MaliEcobank has emerged as Mali’s Bank of the Year for 2022, with the bank managing to turn its finances around in the midst of severe political challenges in the west African state.The country has been increasingly unstable over the past 10 years, with a violent jihadist insurgency in the north of the country spreading to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso. Soldiers seized control on the state in May 2021, the second coup in nine months. After elections promised for February 2022 failed to materialise, the Economic Community of West African States imposed sanctions on the government and severed diplomatic ties.In spite of such challenges, 2021 was a watershed year for Ecobank’s finances in Mali. After two consecutive years of falls in its asset base, the bank turned a corner with a 6% expansion in 2021. Profit, which had also fallen in the previous two years, grew by 58%, with return on equity climbing from 21% to 27%.As was the case in Ecobank’s other markets, the bank’s Xpress mobile banking was upgraded to enable account opening via USSD, expanding the product’s reach across the population. Other upgrades include the expansion of the banks’ network of independent agents, which has grown to more than 1000 access points nationwide, the introduction of virtual cards via the bank’s smartphone app, equipping physical branches with cheque remittance terminals, and the expansion of the bank’s withdrawal and deposit ATM network.“As Malian businesses see the immense opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area multiply, our comprehensive range of banking products and solutions firmly positions us as the bank of choice for commerce, small and medium-sized enterprise [business] and payments,” says Mamady Diakite, managing director of Ecobank Mali. “The Bank of the Year award illustrates our success.” Mauritius Mauritius Commercial BankAfter losing its crown in 2021, Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) has regained the Bank of the Year award this year, in recognition of its strengthening presence overseas and the development of its digital services.September 2021 saw the bank upgrade its representative office advisory services on financial products, particularly to corporate and institutional clients as well as to arrange credit, deals in investment and custody facilities, thereby strengthening its positioning with Middle East and north Africa-based clients with interests in the continent.The office is concerned with client acquisition and relationship management activities, while its booking centre is in Mauritius, where all accounts are handled, with clients benefitting from a dedicated point of contact in the Mauritius-based MCB head office. Out of the 40 new external asset management relationships struck in the 12 months to end-June 2022, 15 are based in the UAE.“The bank remains intent on pursuing its strategic focus areas by tapping into new opportunities within existing growth pillars,” says MCB’s CEO Alain Law Min. “We aim to maintain a dynamic and extensive franchise locally as an innovative digital bank while we grow our international business in line with our specialised banking model approach.”During 2021, the bank launched its ‘Punch’ collaborative ecosystem to enable Mauritian entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises to gain access to a pool of industry experts, accountants, consultants, export markets, clients and equity partners. To date, the platform has attracted more than 1600 members, with more than 125 growth partners and six institutional investors.Another highlight of the year was the launch of MCB JuicePro, an app targeted at entrepreneurs, with features including pay and transfer options, cards management, centralised access to statements and a seamless process for a user to also become a merchant, together with lending and overdraft features. Morocco Attijariwafa BankA year after losing its crown, Attijariwafa Bank has regained the Bank of the Year award for Morocco amid stiff competition, in recognition of its work with small businesses, together with several key digital upgrades.As part of a government-wide initiative to support the country’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector — which accounts for 96% of all companies in Morocco — in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the bank has continued to expand its ‘Ana Maak’ awards programme for small enterprises and its ‘Dar Al Moukawil’ network, which offers financial and non-financial assistance to entrepreneurs, regardless of whether they are bank customers or not.The network, which in 2022 saw the opening of new centres in Oujda and Nador, has supported more than 230,000 project leaders and small businesses and more than 6000 co-operatives, with the project’s YouTube channel attracting more than 7.5 million views. Thanks in part to such programmes, Attijariwafa’s SME customer base has grown to more than 1.2 million, with a 42% market share for SME loans.On the IT side, the bank has been pressing ahead with upgrades in the robotic process automation space, with improvements serving to decrease operational risk, significantly reduce processing times of back-office operations and free up the equivalent of 15 full-time employees for more critical tasks requiring in-depth analyses.Of particular significance has been the roll out of fully digital client onboarding for clients, who can register for a new bank account by taking a selfie and a following a few simple steps. The process takes no more than five minutes.The bank recorded a 66.2% growth in net profits in 2021, with return on equity recovering from 8.7% to 11.5%, while assets grew by 5%. Mozambique Millennium bimMillennium bim has once again retained its crown as Bank of the Year for Mozambique, in recognition of several significant digital leaps together with its efforts in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) sphere.In Mozambique’s rapidly digitising banking landscape, the bank signed an interoperability agreement in February 2022 with Carteira Móvel (TMcel), operator of the mKesh electronic money financial service. With this agreement, Millennium bim became the first lender to interface with the country’s three major mobile money providers, having already struck agreements with M-Pesa (provided by Vodacom) and e-Mola (Movitel Telecom). Following the mKesh agreement, transactions via the bank’s IZI platform grew to more than 17.3 million per month.In 2021, Millennium bim launched its M-Top digital banking offering, supported by a dedicated call centre and account management. Account holders are given personal accident insurance and are able to access ‘Crédito Nova Vida TOP’ loans at subsidised rates.In addition to its digital initiatives, the bank opened a new generation branch in the municipality of Matola, which is powered by solar energy.Millennium bim continues to support a series of initiatives under its ‘Mais Moçambique pra Mim’ CSR programme. In March 2021, the lender offered 100 beds to the country’s Ministry of Health to strengthen the operational capacity of the Covid-19 inpatient and treatment centre of the Mavalane General Hospital in the country’s capital, Maputo. Later in the year, Millennium bim delivered a building with three fully-equipped classrooms to the Ministry of Education, in addition to kits with school supplies for 800 students in the conflict-riven province of Cabo Delgado.The bank’s asset base decreased slightly during the year due to the divestment of shares in IT services company Seguradora Internacional de Moçambique. Profits rose by almost 40%, with return on equity increasing from 16% to 21.3%. Namibia First National Bank NamibiaIn a competitive category, First National Bank (FNB) has been selected as Namibia’s Bank of the Year, in recognition of its Digiplus mobile banking product and the issuance of its first green bond.Digiplus — officially launched in July 2022 — is a USSD-based product available for FNB and non-FNB customers. The service, which can be opened remotely, allows the account holder to receive and send funds from FNB and other banks, make transfers between accounts, buy prepaid electricity and airtime, and make cardless cash withdrawals and deposits at any CashPlus agent.In addition, the bank upgraded its FNB app to enable statement downloads and divestment functionality. The bank saw an increase in e-wallet transaction volumes and values, while USSD registrations in the lower income segment grew again off a base of already high penetration. Efforts to encourage customers to swipe cards instead of using cash delivered increasingly higher usage over the period.The bank’s first green bond issuance raised N$353m ($23.7m) across three- and five-year notes in early 2022, with the proceeds to be allocated to eligible green loans applied towards Namibian green buildings and renewable energy generation projects. The green bond auction garnered more than N$2bn in bids, resulting in the auction being 5.82 times subscribed.Last year was a mixed one financially for FNB; while Tier 1 capital rose 11%, the bank’s overall asset base reduced by 5%. Net income rose during the year, with return on equity increasing from 17.3% from 19.2%. The cost-to-income ratio worsened slightly to 54.6% from 52.6%, while non-performing loans also worsened from 4.4% to 5.2%. Nigeria Zenith BankNigeria’s Bank of the Year award was among the continent’s most hotly contested this year, befitting the country’s status as Africa’s largest economy. The country’s second-largest lender, Zenith Bank, is this year’s winner, in recognition of its support for small businesses and efforts to cut energy consumption.Zenith reported a 13% growth in Tier 1 capital and an 11% rise in assets during 2021, with profits increasing by 6%. Return on equity worsened slightly from 22.4% to 20.4%.The bank launched its small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) Grow My Business solution in late 2021 in a bid to support SME growth in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The programme — offered by the bank in collaboration with partners including Visa and Facebook — is designed to help with challenges such as technology adoption, capital growth and access to low-interest loans. It helps to reduce marketing costs and offers business advice via training, as well as provides much-needed accounting and collection solutions.Since the launch of the scheme, the bank has disbursed more than N49bn ($110m) of loans to SMEs in general and N5bn to women-owned businesses through Z-Woman, a subset of the programme targeted at female-owned businesses.On the digital front, the bank launched its Zenith Intelligent Virtual Assistant (Ziva) chatbot, with services including account opening, balance enquiry, money transfer, and airtime and bills payment.“Transactions across various digital channels have grown significantly over the past year, driven by growth in our acquiring and issuing businesses on the back of innovative deployment of payment technologies,” says Ebenezer Onyeagwu, Zenith Bank’s CEO.“We are building more robust digital capabilities and omnichannels, as well as partnering and collaborating with fintechs to reinforce our presence in the digital ecosystem and drive our retail franchise,” he adds. Senegal Orabank SénégalAfter being displaced as Senegal’s Bank of the Year last year, Orabank has reclaimed its title for 2022, in recognition of its strong finances and innovative deposit collection and cash management solutions.“This award rewards the efforts of the Orabank Sénégal team, who daily dedicate themselves to our customers’ satisfaction, by implementing innovative tools and the best digital strategies,” says Kofi Dorkenoo, Orabank Sénégal’s managing director.The bank collected CFAFr15bn ($23.6m) worth of cash in the 18 months to June 2022 via its WeCollect, a service that enables corporate customers to collect receipts via direct payments from customers from the counters of other Orabank subsidiaries across the West African Economic and Monetary Union.The bank has also managed to optimise the cash flow of larger corporate customers including Mediterranean Shipping Company, Maersk Line and Port Autonome de Dakar via its cash pick-up service, which accounted for CFAFr79bn worth of cash pick-ups during the period.Orabank was one of only two banks to win a partnership agreement with the country’s Caisse des dépôts et consignations, a public institution that manages deposits and securities belonging to fund organisations, including notaries. The bank has made cheque scanners available for notaries, streamlining the deposits process, with the technology also being made available to mobile operators including Orange and Free.In 2021, the bank also entered a partnership with Orange subsidiary, Orange Finances Mobiles Senegal, and payment firms Thunes and Taptap Send to enable international money transfers to Orange mobile wallets.Orabank recorded strong growth during 2021, with assets growing by 33.8%. Tier 1 capital and net profits more than doubled, with return on equity increasing from 25.9% to 30.5%. The cost-to-income ratio improved from 51.8% to 48.6%, while non-performing loans improved from 3.6% to 3.2%. Sierra Leone UBA Sierra LeoneUnited Bank for Africa (UBA) retains its title of Bank of the Year for Sierra Leone, thanks to a solid financial performance, improved corporate governance structure and digital registration push.After a bumper year in 2020, growth across the bank’s financial metrics slowed in 2021, but remains at impressive levels, with Tier 1 capital and assets growing by 28.6% and 46.2%, respectively. Net profits grew by 27.8%, while return on equity fell from 42.6% to 39.3%, although this remains comfortably higher than pre-pandemic levels. Cost-to-income continued to improve, with its non-performing loan ratio is 0.23%.“The cornerstone of our business development strategy is our determined focus on going the extra mile to delight our customers at every point of interaction, in line with our customer-first operating philosophy,” says UBA Sierra Leone’s CEO Usman Isiaka.“This has encouraged our customers to become our sales advocates, giving testimonies on the quality of service and relationship management they receive from the bank, with [a] significant positive impact on our business growth in the country.”One of the key strategic initiatives adopted by the bank during the review period was the strengthening of its corporate governance structure, with the appointment of three more Sierra Leoneans to the bank’s board of directors. The appointments mean that seven of the bank’s board are now Sierra Leoneans, including chairman Claudius Bart-Williams, part of the UBA Group’s strategic focus on domesticating the governance, products and services of its various subsidiaries. On the digital front, the bank hasoverhauled its mobile experience via a new app, equipped with new features including a refreshed interface, personal finance management tools and enhanced security protection. South Africa Standard BankThis year Standard Bank has been crowned South Africa’s Bank of the Year for the first time since 2019. The continent’s largest lender overcame strong competition, with the judges noting a string of significant digital upgrades, together with its increased shareholding in insurer Liberty Holdings.The acquisition of the remaining shares in Liberty — announced in 2021 and completed the following year — will see the company’s strengths in long-term insurance and asset management complement Standard Bank’s banking, private client asset management and shorter-term insurance capabilities.“The next stage of our journey is to become a platform organisation, meeting the banking, insurance, investment and non-financial needs of our clients, in partnership with others,” says Lungisa Fuzile, Standard Bank’s South Africa CEO. “We intend to be a single convenient destination where people and firms can find the products and services they need quickly and conveniently.”Among the bank’s most prominent product offerings of the review period was a relaunch of its Shyft foreign exchange app. First introduced in 2016, the app was relaunched in 2021 with new features and functionality, including a shares feature that allows users to invest in exchange-traded funds and a wide range of US companies. The new app has more than 100,000 users.Also of note is the bank’s OneHub digital marketplace, launched in June 2021, offering corporate clients access to a range of digital tools and services. These include web applications and application programming interfaces, developed by the group and its trusted network of technology partners, to enhance efficiencies and streamline their own processes.The bank’s profits rebounded in 2021 after a steep drop the year before, with return on equity recovering to 12.5% from 4.8% over the period. Tier 1 capital and assets grew by 10% and 4%, respectively in 2021, with a slight improvement in both costs and asset quality. Tanzania Stanbic TanzaniaStanbic Tanzania retains its title of the country’s Bank of the Year for 2022, in recognition of its pioneering Borderless Banking scheme and its efforts in boosting financial literacy.The bank witnessed a 9% growth in Tier 1 capital and a 22% rise in assets during 2021. However, net profits fell by 15%, with return on equity dropping from 6.1% to 5.1%.One of Stanbic’s most significant achievements during the review period was the launch of Borderless Banking, enabling Tanzanian clients within east Africa to be served from any geographical region that has a Stanbic Branch in Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan. Since launching in 2021, close to 30% of the east African settlements in the Stanbic network have occurred over the new platform, with more than $70m of cash deposited for the trade corridor in its first six months of operation.In a bid to advance the cause of financial literacy in Tanzania, the bank launched the Stanbic Financial Fitness Academy in February 2022, providing a structured wealth management curriculum, covering topics including entrepreneurship, budgeting, saving and investment, insurance and wills. More than 670 individuals have benefited from the curriculum thus far, including university students, corporate employees, association groups, Stanbic employees and their children.Stanbic’s investment banking team notched up a series of key transactions during the review period. These include a $30m participation (together with Standard Bank) in a syndicated term facility of $1.3bn for the government of Tanzania in the second quarter of 2021, a TSh15bn ($6.4m) medium-term loan for local sugar estate TPC in the fourth quarter of the year, and a TSh58.5bn participation in a TSh200bn revolving credit facility for Geita Gold Mining and Samax Resources during the same quarter. Togo EcobankTogo’s Bank of the Year award for 2022 goes to Ecobank, whose highlights for the period include the development of its bancassurance product line, an upgrade to its customer relationship management capabilities, and its ongoing support for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers.In an effort to tap into Africa’s burgeoning insurance market — which is growing faster than any region apart from Asia — Ecobank announced a partnership in December 2021 with five major insurers to provide bancassurance products for SME customers in Togo and 26 other markets across the bank’s footprint. Products already on offer include commercial asset insurance, engineering insurance, marine and cargo insurance, key person insurance, motor fleet business travel insurance, in addition to bespoke offerings such as credit insurance-leasing, credit insurance-invoice discounting without recourse and agricultural area yield insurance.“We have proudly contributed to the development of Togolese SMEs through initiatives that go beyond banking services. These include training, digital presence, marketplaces and much more. This award recognises our efforts,” says Souleymane Toure, managing director of Ecobank Togo.Also, within the SME space, the bank launched Ecobank Marketplace eCommerce to enable sole traders and small businesses to advertise goods and services, and also organised training for financing programmes — organised into four modules across 15 training sessions — with successful graduates eligible for working capital financing.Ecobank posted strong results in 2021 after profitability the previous year was impacted by a one-off $338m goodwill write-down. Profits increased by 174% for the year, with return on equity increasing to 17.3%, comfortably ahead of the pre-pandemic level of 13.2%. The cost-to-income ratio decreased from 62.7% to 58.9%, while non-performing loans dropped to 6.2% from 7.6%. Tunisia Union Internationale de Banques – Groupe Société GénéraleUnion Internationale de Banques (UIB) has been selected as Tunisia’s Bank of the Year for 2022 in recognition of its strengths in both retail and business banking, as well as its sustainability efforts alongside Agence Française de Développement’s (AFD’s) Sunref programme.One of the recent highlights on the retail front was the launch in late 2021 of a smartphone promotion in collaboration with local telco Ooredoo, enabling customers to acquire a handset worth TD300-2000 ($95-$631) through a maximum of 24 monthly repayments. While the UIB app is uploaded onto the new handset, customers are able to maintain their accounts via calls and SMS, without the need for mobile data usage.The bank has also launched a solidarity savings product, enabling customers to transfer the interest gained via a classic savings account to one of the bank’s partner charities.On top of its strengths in the retail market, UIB has been looking to increase its business banking penetration, looking to support Tunisian companies doing business across the wider African continent, developing trade flows, cash management and e-banking via the establishment of dedicated business expertise structures, fully integrated into the global trade and cash management lines of its parent Société Générale.The bank has also been active in the sustainable finance realm, thanks to its participation in Sunref, a green finance initiative from AFD. Via the programme, UIB has been able to support local companies in their efforts to reduce energy consumption, transition to renewable energy sources and boost recycling.After dipping in 2020, UIB’s profits increased by 81% in 2022, with return on equity rising from 9.4% to 11.4%. The cost-to-income ratio continued to deteriorate, from 50.3% to 53.9%, while non-performing loans remain elevated yet unchanged for the year at 8.1%. Uganda Equity Bank UgandaIn a very close contest, Equity Bank has been named as Uganda’s Bank of the Year for 2022, thanks to a good financial performance, as well as a series of compelling technology and product upgrades throughout the review period.Equity recorded a 28% growth in Tier 1 capital in 2021 and a 36% increase in assets. Net profits rose by 49%, with return on equity improving from 24.4% to 27.7%. The cost-to-income ratio and non-performing loans continue to increase, however.March 2022 saw the bank enable account opening via USSD codes, bringing digital onboarding to would-be customers without access to smartphones or mobile data. More than 50,000 accounts were opened within the first four months of the service’s launch, attracting deposits worth Ush4.2bn ($1.1m).On the product side, Equity Bank launched a new collateral-free loans product for customers between the ages of 18 and 35, in conjunction with Mastercard’s Young Africa Works programme. The bank also launched EquiMaama, a loans facility for women, with an interest rate of 1.25% per month.The bank launched its EazzyFX foreign exchange platform in September 2021, giving customers access to competitive quotes and prices for both emerging market and major traded currencies, with the ability to place multiple trade orders.Also of note was the bank’s launch of its Equi Green loan programme. Developed in collaboration with Uganda Energy Credit Capitalisation Company, the scheme is designed to enable poor and middle-income households in the country to access clean energy for lighting, cooking and climate-smart agriculture. Customers can buy improved cook stoves, solar lighting systems, biomass systems, irrigation systems and water storage tanks through affordable, simplified loan products starting from as low as Ush200,000, repayable in six or 12 months. Zambia UBA ZambiaZambia’s Bank of the Year award once again goes to United Bank for Africa (UBA), in recognition of its strong financial performance and improved market segmentation approach.The bank’s Tier 1 capital base doubled during 2021, with assets increasing by 31%. Profits more than doubled, with return on equity increasing from 18% to 36%. Costs continued to improve, with the cost-to-income ratio falling from 69% to 38%. However, non-performing loans jumped to 32% from 2%, as a result of a fall in the bank’s overall loan book due to the repayment of a major facility.“Having experienced tremendous cost reduction and growth in revenue/profitability, by leveraging digital technology over the past 12 months, our future plans are to invest in more digital banking products/innovations that will be appealing to our customers, in terms of value addition to their businesses,” says Chinedu Obeta, UBA Zambia’s managing director.During the review period, the bank carried out a portfolio segmentation exercise to better align its organisational objectives and product offerings to market needs. The exercise prompted a restructuring of its risk asset and liabilities products, together with its small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) product offerings, leading to a 62.8% growth in its SME risk asset portfolio.The growth was particularly notable in sub-segments such as schools, hospitals, churches, and retail traders. UBA Schools has attracted primary and secondary schools looking to access finances for equipment and renovations, while UBA Medicals allows medical centres to apply for financial support to buy or lease clinic premises, furnish and fit out the health centres, and buy medical equipment and other office supplies. UBA Divine, meanwhile, allows churches an annual turnover of $50,000 or more to finance the purchase of buildings and land
Bank of the Year Awards 2022 — Global and regional
Global and Western EuropeBBVA As testament to its growth story across the multiple countries it operates in, BBVA has taken the crown as the Global Bank of the Year 2022, while also picking up the western Europe award and country awards for Colombia, Peru and its home market of Spain.In 2021, BBVA posted its best recurring profit of the past decade, €5.07bn — nearly doubling the 2020 figure — and ended the year with a solid common equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 12.75%, which is both above the regulatory requirement and the bank’s target range of 11.5-12%.In addition to its strong financial metrics, the bank’s approach to innovation, sustainability and customer segmentation sets it apart from its peers. It is truly an institution at the forefront of international banking.“This recognition is confirmation of BBVA’s distinctive strategy to grow profitably with solid quarter-on-quarter results. This allows us to create value for our shareholders, relying on innovation and sustainability as strategic levers,” says BBVA chair Carlos Torres Vila. “In all of our markets, we have been pioneers in digitisation to help our customers make better decisions when it comes to their money,” he continues. “We have also taken on a substantial role in supporting the transition to a more sustainable economy, with a dual focus on climate action and inclusive growth.”The bank is well on its digital transformation journey, which gives it the flexibility needed to experiment with new offerings, engage in new partnerships and enter new markets. Importantly, BBVA shares its learnings from one country to another, but also tailors each offering for the local jurisdiction, such as the launch of BBVA Italy, a digital retail banking platform. BBVA is a leader in using technology to deliver a better customer experience. The launch of its extreme customisation marketing campaigns in Spain, powered by artificial intelligence, is one just one example of how it is taking personalisation to the next level. It is working on producing advanced models capable of analysing internal data, trends and business needs to introduce dynamic pricing and next-best-action suggestions.On top of this, it is transforming the relationship with its customers towards a more do-it-yourself and remote model, which will help to futureproof its business. For example, the core set of digital tools for personal finance management is now available in all of the countries it operates in: Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey and Spain. However, BBVA is aware that not everyone is digitally savvy and has pledged to leave no one behind, supporting those on the margins of digitisation through specific programmes.The banking group has spent more than five years exploring blockchain technology. In 2020, BBVA’s Swiss subsidiary rolled out a cryptocurrency custody and trading service available for private banking clients. In 2022, it launched a new digital service called New Gen, a 100% digital investment account that allows new customer segments beyond private banking to combine traditional and digital financial assets in the same investment portfolio.The group is also investing in the entrepreneur ecosystem, supporting fintechs and digital banks, which is helping to drive change in the global financial services industry. For example, it has made investments in newly created digital banks, such as the UK’s Atom Bank, Solarisbank in Europe, and more recently Neon in Brazil, where BBVA invested €300m.BBVA has raised sustainability to the highest executive level of the organisation. The bank’s commitment to sustainability, and helping its clients transition toward a more sustainable future, is evidenced in the launch of its carbon footprint digital calculator for individual, small and medium-sized enterprises, and commercial customers. In addition to tracking how their behaviour impacts the environment, the tool provides personalised recommendations to reduce their carbon footprint. In a first in Spain, BBVA launched a simulator tool to help facilitate the decision to purchase an electric car.Central and Eastern Europe OTP BankNot only has OTP Bank managed to maintain its dominant position in its home country, Hungary, but it is continually expanding across central and eastern Europe. Its stellar performance over the review period cinched its win as the regional Bank of the Year, as well as helping it pick up five country awards.In 2021, its Tier 1 capital increased by 26%, its asset base by 18% and net profits jumped 76%, to Ft456.4bn ($1.2bn). During the year, it acquired Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor in Slovenia, as well as the Albanian subsidiary of Greece’s Alpha Bank.“The highlights in 2021 are our record annual profit, the excellent performance of all subsidiary banks and business lines, our outstanding capital adequacy, stable liquidity and strong volume dynamics,” says László Wolf, deputy CEO of OTP’s commercial banking division. “We managed the challenges successfully and came out stronger overall.“However, the deteriorating economic environment as a consequence of the war [in Ukraine] is testing our resilience again,” he adds. “Moreover, a large number of our Ukrainian colleagues are also affected in humanitarian crisis situations.” The bank has mobilised donations across the group, as well as fundraised among customers and provided temporary housing for refugees.OTP Bank’s strategic priorities are full digital transformation, sustainability and growth. In 2021, OTP updated several of its digital solutions, including its ‘Chatbot Builder’, ‘Videobank’ and online account OTP Lejer.The bank prioritises digitalisation efforts and looks to partner with innovative technology firms and start-ups. “We are also looking for opportunities in areas beyond banking — we have started building special ecosystems in the areas of health, digital and real estate,” says Mr Wolf.Sustainability has been raised to one of OTP Bank’s most strategic priorities — it is committed and actively engaged in financing the transition to a less carbon-intensive economy. On July 5, OTP Bank issued its first euro-denominated MREL-eligible green bonds, with an order book well above €400m.Asia-PacificSiam Commercial BankSiam Commercial Bank (SCB) has undertaken a radical transformation which has changed the shape and the approach of its whole banking business. Its hugely ambitious project, which is already starting to show good results, is the reason why the bank has been selected as the winner of the Asia-Pacific Bank of the Year 2022. The bank’s establishment of SCBX has given it the space to create and innovate at the very cutting edge of banking technology. This division will oversee subsidiaries in finance, financial technology, and digital platform business to encourage growth alongside the core banking business. Among SCBX’s subsectors is venture capital investment arm, SCB 10X, which is targeting innovations that will benefit the bank. These include participating in a Series B round raised by Talos, a provider of institutional digital asset trading technology. SCB 10X also made a follow-on investment in the Series B round of Sygnum, the world’s first digital asset bank. Another move through SCBX was to spin off the bank’s card business to increase flexibility and enhance competitiveness. Card X operates the credit card and personal lending business, which uses artificial intelligence to implement advanced credit decisioning models and personalisation models. It is focused on capturing the low-income segment, freelance workers, the younger generation, and those in their early careers. Customers can access 24-hour chatbots for support. In addition to its technological overhaul, SCB has laid out sustainable finance goals, providing responsible lending by following the guidelines of the Bank of Thailand and the Thai Bankers’ Association. It also became the first Thai lender to sign up to the Equator Principles Association, whose members adhere to the risk management framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in project finance. “A better bank requires addressing multiple challenges, particularly competition from non-bank enterprises,” says Kris Chantanotoke, CEO of SCB. “Success will be determined by optimising business portfolios, responding holistically to customers’ needs and pain points, increasing digitisation to support digital sales, generating additional fees from strategic partners, and reducing cost-to-income ratios, while maintaining solid capital.” AmericasBTG Pactual Brazil’s BTG Pactual, one of the biggest investment banks in Latin America, has delivered strong results yet again. In the past four years, the bank’s revenue has increased by an impressive 160%, reaching 13.9bn reais ($2.6bn) in 2021. Last year alone, it recorded a 59.5% rise in net profits, to 6.3bn reais. Impressively, the bank’s strong performance was achieved within the context of a challenging economic environment.BTG Pactual has proved its strength in a number of segments: investment banking, corporate lending, sales and trading, wealth management and asset management. In the past few years, it has been pushing into consumer banking as well, leveraging capabilities acquired over the years. Back in 2018, it launched its first initiative in the retail space: BTG Pactual Digital (renamed BTG Investmentos), a digital investment app targeting Brazil’s high-income retail market. In 2021, it launched a fully digital consumer banking app. Entering the retail segment has conversely helped its private banking operations. From between the first quarter of 2021 to the same period of 2022, it added 194bn reais of net new money.BTG Pactual is also offering solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For example, it launched a fully digital transactional bank, BTG Empresas, aimed at this segment. SMEs can also approach BTG Pactual for supply chain credit financing and transactional banking products.The bank has cemented its status as one of the most innovative sector players. It is positioned to take full advantage of increasing digital adoption, launching innovative financial products for its clientele. Such efforts began several years ago with the move the cloud initiated in 2016. “Over the past 12 months we have benefitted from investments in technology, while entering new client segments and consequently operating the business with more diversification and stability,” says BTG Pactual’s CEO Roberto Sallouti. “We consider ourselves an all-weather equity story, where we continue to significantly grow top-line and earnings in a more challenging macro scenario with higher inflation and interest rates.” Middle East National Bank of KuwaitFor the first time in 11 years, a Kuwaiti bank has been selected as the Middle East’s Bank of the Year. Amid stiff competition, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has been selected as the regional winner for 2022, in recognition of the landmark launch of Weyay (‘with me’ in Arabic), the country’s first digital-only lender. Developed over a period of 12 months and launched in November 2021, Weyay is targeted at customers in the under-35 demographic in Kuwait — which accounts for two-thirds of the population — with a view to capturing increased market share in allowance transfers and first-jobber Kuwaitis, and later rolling out the service across its international footprint. Weyay accounts can be opened by sending a selfie and scanning the customer’s civil ID or Kuwait mobile ID. Customers are able to choose the colour of their card, track their spending, store e-cards for services including iTunes, Amazon and the PlayStation Store, and instantly transfer funds to other Weyay users.The launch of Weyay is the most visible aspect of NBK’s digital transformation, which continued apace during the review period. Other digital highlights included the bank’s participation in the implementation of the Kuwait National Payment System in 2021, together with its deployment in the same year of the MX.3 treasury management platform in collaboration with Murex.Last year also saw the bank consolidate NBK and its private banking operations to form a new NBK wealth management division, with a view to increasing the bank’s market share in asset management both in Kuwait and across its footprint, notably in Saudi Arabia. The new division surpassed its targets for the year, with more than $2bn worth of asset management products and transactions launched or placed with clients of the group.On the corporate banking side, the NBK Group introduced cross-border receivable financing, whereby the receivables of the prime customers of clients are discounted by the bank.After profits fell in 2020, the NBK Group recorded a strong recovery in 2021, with net profits rising by 47% and return on equity increasing from 7% to 10.2%.Africa Equity Group HoldingsAfter a dip in net profits in 2020, Equity Group Holdings enjoyed an impressive recovery in 2021, increasing profits by a hefty 99% and assets by 29%, while return on equity increased from 15.3% to 26.1%. Two of its largest operations — in Uganda and its home market of Kenya — received country prizes in this year’s awards.Yet, it is Equity’s Eastern and Central Africa Recovery and Resilience plan — a $6bn stimulus plan for the six markets in which the group operates — that sees the group take home the Bank of the Year award for Africa. Launched in early 2022, the initiative is designed to accelerate economic recovery from the impact of Covid-19 in eastern and central Africa by providing financing — in the form of blended financing of short-term overdrafts, medium-term loans and credit facilities which require long-term project and development financing — of up to Ks678bn ($5.56bn) over a five-year period. The plan will have a special focus on women and young people, supporting them to be the primary drivers of creating and expanding opportunities in the real economy. The programme will focus on several key sectors, principally food and agriculture, and is intended to unlock productivity gains and value addition ecosystems to achieve food security for the region, while increasing value creation. It seeks to leverage productive capacities and comparative advantages to transform the region into a manufacturing hub that converts agricultural raw material into finished products for export and national use.“The plan [leverages] the capacity of the private sector and public–private partnerships to finance, de-risk and build capacity for the African continent by impacting five million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises — 25 million individuals — to create 50 million direct and indirect jobs,” says James Mwangi, group managing director and group CEO of Equity Group Holdings.Mr Mwangi adds: “We are honoured to be recognised by The Banker and the Financial Times in the 2022 Bank of the Year Awards as Kenya’s Bank of the Year, Uganda’s Bank of the Year and regional winner in Africa.” Banking in the Community Scotiabank“Economic resilience doesn’t just happen for many disadvantaged individuals – it has to be nurtured and invested in,” says Meigan Terry, Scotiabank’s chief sustainability, social impact and communications officer.Launched in January 2021, ScotiaRISE is the bank’s 10-year, $500m community investment initiative designed to foster economic resilience among disadvantaged groups. It represents the culmination of two years of planning by Scotiabank to harness its expertise, resources and funding to deliver maximum impact behind a single cause.To this end, ScotiaRISE is structured around three key focus areas: supporting immigrants and refugees so they can better integrate, contribute and prosper within their local communities; the improvement of secondary school graduation rates and higher education participation; and the removal of barriers to career advancement for disadvantaged groups.In its first year, ScotiaRISE has supported more than 200 community partners and delivered $26m in community investments to programmes across Scotiabank’s markets. These include a $400,000 investment in Talent Lift Canada’s employment relocation scheme, which helps connect hiring managers with refugee communities. Another signature programme is Scotiabank’s $2.15m partnership with YMCA Alternative Suspension, an out-of-school intervention programme that helps vulnerable teenagers stay in formal education.A unique aspect of ScotiaRISE lies in how its performance can be measured, which is not only in the quantity of funds invested but also in the positive outcomes the initiative makes possible. To date, Scotiabank says the initiative has enabled more than 358,000 critical moments of support for people in need across ScotiaRISE’s key focus areas. “Through these efforts, more than 22,000 individuals have benefited from acts of allyship, cross-cultural training and anti-bias or inclusion programming; 73,000 individuals received mentorships to help progress in their careers; and 50,000 were provided with financial education and support,” according to Ms Terry.She adds: “As we learn more about the systemic barriers to economic inclusion, we will evolve the way ScotiaRISE will invest in helping people and communities overcome those challenges — in support of a better and more inclusive future.” Financial Inclusion SantanderIn a highly competitive category, Santander emerges as a clear winner due to its commitment to serving financially excluded communities and small businesses on a large scale with its ‘Finance for All’ initiative, a comprehensive suite of services that blends digitalisation with financial education.Santander says it is on track to exceed its target of reaching 10 million underbanked people across Europe, North America and Latin America by 2025 this year – something that has taken four years and is still remarkably ahead of schedule. This target is now due to be revised upwards to an even more ambitious goal.In Latin America, where an estimated 300 million people remain unbanked, Santander’s primary focus is to improve access to the financial system with initiatives such as Superdigital, its flagship mobile payments platform that leverages the rapid regional growth in smartphone adoption to help individuals gain access to formal banking services. “Superdigital is part of PagoNxt, the payment's tech backbone of Santander. It allows us to help people access banking products and services in Latin America so they can make payments; use basic, tailored financial services; take greater control of their finances; and make faster and more secure transactions,” says Leopoldo Martínez Cruz, CEO of Superdigital. “To achieve this ambition, we developed an innovative digital ecosystem inside a proprietary platform – cloud native, mobile first, API driven – that operates in a multi-country, multi-language and multi-currency core system.” In Brazil, Superdigital’s largest market, the platform also provides services for micro-entrepreneurs, enabling them to pay suppliers and receive payments from their customers. Santander plans to grow the platform’s user base to five million customers by 2023 across seven Latin American markets.In addition, Santander has launched multiple microfinance products to serve individuals and small businesses who face challenges in obtaining credit: Tuiio in México; Prospera in Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia; and Surgir in Peru. According to the bank, these initiatives have supported 1.2 million micro-entrepreneurs in the region, of which 70% are women.Financial education is also considered a key component of Santander’s strategy. In 2021, the bank’s educational programmes helped 1.3 million people boost their financial literacy. Tailored to local needs, notable programmes include Finansiaki in Poland, which teaches financial awareness to children, while in Chile, the Sanodelucas online education platform has benefited more than a million individuals since 2019.
The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards 2022
The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards continue to go from strength to strength, with hundreds of entries submitted from all corners of the world. The institutions that win a coveted Bracken trophy are at the forefront of the global banking industry – we salute you and your achievements. Two major trends can be gleaned from the submissions. First, digital transformation is accelerating in every region and continent, with all banks refining their plans with the customer – and employee – experience front and centre. The second trend is the embedding of sustainability in financial services. Banks across the globe are stepping up their efforts to provide essential advice and funding for the great transition to net-zero emissions. This is vital not just for the banking industry, but for the planet. This year, we made awards in 134 countries. The greatest number of submissions came from Africa, followed by the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Winners from across the world attended this year’s black-tie dinner in London in early December – the first in-person celebration in three years. Congratulations to all the winners for their stellar performances and achievements in 2022.