This is the 13th year Global Finance has named the World’s Best Internet Banks. Details on all First Round winners will be published in the September issue. First Round winners include Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Banks and Best Consumer Internet Banks at the country level. Winners were also selected in Asia, North America, Latin America, Europe and CEE. The Regional and Global winners for these categories will be announced at an Awards Ceremony in New York City in November and published in the December issue of Global Finance. Also announced were regional winners in sub-categories. Global winners in the sub-categories will also be announced at the Awards Ceremony and in the December issue.
“Winners were chosen among entries evaluated by a world-class panel of judges at Infosys. Global Finance editors were responsible for the final selection of winners in the First Round,” Global Finance in a statement said.
“Only banks that entered the competition were considered for awards, and awards were only given in those regions, countries and categories in which there were entries. Winning banks were selected based on the following criteria: strength of strategy for attracting and servicing online customers, success in getting clients to use web offerings, growth of online customers, breadth of product offerings, evidence of tangible benefits gained from Internet initiatives, and web site design and functionality. Category winners, such as “best in social media” were selected based on the relative strength and success of those web products and services,” the statement added.
“The Internet has transformed the way many consumers and most businesses bank,” Joseph
D. Giarraputo, publisher of Global Finance, said.
“The continuing improvements in Internet offerings represented by this year’s entries show that more significant Internet banking developments are still ahead of us.”
The list of the country winners in Best Consumer Internet Banks category are Bahrain-Standard Chartered; Egypt– Citi; Israe – Bank Hapoalim; Jordan– Arab Bank; Kuwait– Kuwait Finance House; Lebano– Blom Bank; Qatar–Mashreq Bank; Saudi Arabia–Samba Financial Group
South Africa–Absa Online; United Arab Emirates–Standard Chartered and Zambia-Standard Chartered
REGIONAL SUB-CATEGORY WINNERS
Best Consumer Internet Banks in Best Online Deposit, Credit and Investment Product Offerings–Mashreq Bank;
Best Bill Payment and Presentment–Standard Chartered; Best Web Site Design–SABB; Best Integrated Consumer Bank Site: Samba Financial Group; Best Information Security Initiatives–Standard Chartered; Best in Mobile Banking – Bank Hapoalim and Best in Social Media – Bank Leumi.