International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards 2021 | The Banking Academy | 29 January 2021 | Virtual

The International Excellence in Retail Financial Services programme is probably the most rigorous, prestigious and transparent awards programme for consumer financial services in the world. At the moment it covers all of the Asia Pacific, home to some of the largest and most competitive retail financial services countries in the world. We also cover the Middle East and West Africa. The programme is being extended to Central Asia, South Africa, the CIS, the Balkans and other areas where retail financial services are important progressively. We already evaluate of more than 300 banks and non-bank retail financial services players in more than 42 countries in a thorough evaluation process every year.

The programme also assesses all new players such as payments companies, marketplace platforms and alternative financial services platforms made possible by financial technology (fintech) who are greatly contributing to the transformation of the retail financial services industry. Through this, we aim to capture the evolving competitive landscape and recognise the outstanding players and initiatives, from which the industry can learn from to better provide consumer products, services and experience.

Since it started in 2002, the programme has been built on the premise that an outstanding institution in consumer finance demonstrates a long-term sustainable franchise, based on strong business processes that lead to a consistent and profitable performance. It recognises financial institutions for their vision, execution and market leading propositions that make a real impact to their business and the local consumers in an ever transforming industry.

In 2015, we took on an audit-based approach in the evaluation process. This involves submissions for evaluation to be completed in a comprehensive data sheet where your basic quantitative figures will be collated and compared with your peers in the industry over multiple years.

2020 Winners

The Best Retail Bank in Asia Pacific:
• China Merchants Bank (China)

The Best Retail Bank in the Middle East:
• Emirates NBD (UAE)

The Best Digital Bank:
• Webank (China)

The Best Islamic Retail Bank in the Middle East:
• Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar

The Best Retail Bank in China:
• China Merchants Bank

The Best Digital Bank in Asia Pacific:
• WeBank

The Best Digital Bank in Middle East:
• "Liv", Emirates NBD (UAE)

The Best SME Bank:
• United Overseas Bank (Singapore)

The Most Improved Retail Bank in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa:
• Bank of Shanghai (Asia Pacific)

The Best Wealth Management in Asia Pacific:
• China Merchants Bank, China