LONDON: 3 December 2010: The UK’s Standard Chartered Bank was named Global Bank of the Year by The Banker magazine at the publication’s 2010 Bank of the Year awards.
Standard Chartered, which has operations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, also won the award for Best Bank in Asia.
Brian Caplen, editor of The Banker said: “Standard Chartered was one of the UK banks that came through the crisis relatively unscathed and has since taken advantage of the strong growth in its key markets. The bank has good management and concentrates on its core businesses without getting sidetracked. It is a worthy winner of The Banker’s top award.”
Chief executive of Standard Chartered Peter Sands said that the award recognised the bank’s strategy. “We aspire to be the world’s best international bank, leading the way in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, parts of the world that are growing strongly, that we know intimately, and where we have our roots,” he said.
The awards, which are in their 11th year, attracted interest from all over the world, with awards for the best bank given in 149 countries – the highest number of countries in the awards’ history. Banks must submit a formal entry and provide the judges with key data and information. The judging is conducted by an editorial committee.
Regional winners include the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo in Western Europe, Austria’s Erste Bank in Eastern Europe, Spain’s Santander in the Americas, National Bank of Kuwait in the Middle East and South Africa’s Standard Bank in Africa. Deutsche Bank was judged the best at cash management and Citigroup the top player in securities services.
The best bank in the UK was chosen as Santander UK, formerly Abbey, which also came through the crisis well and was able to expand by buying out Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester.
Recognising that banks need to serve the less privileged in their communities The Banker has for the second time made an award for the best bank at financial inclusion. This year’s award went to State Bank of India for its efforts to provide financial services to the 400 million unbanked people in India.
For more information and to obtain a list of all the winners by region and country, please visit thebanker.com
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For further information please contact:
Financial Times
Kristina Eriksson
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Financial Times
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Email: kristina.eriksson@ft.com
About The Banker:
The Banker was established in 1926 and is part of the Financial Times Group. The magazine has been carrying ranking since 1970 and also offers a database service. For more information about the ranking and the database go to www.thebanker.com/top1000.php and www.thebanker-database.co.uk.
Brian Caplen has been a financial and business journalist for 25 years He has worked in Hong Kong and the Middle East and reported from all over the world. He joined The Banker in 2000 and became editor in 2003.
About the Financial Times:
The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing essential news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community, the FT has a combined paid print and digital circulation of 579,249 (Deloitte assured, September 2010) and a combined print and online average daily readership of 1.9 million people worldwide (PwC assured, May 2010). FT.com has three million registered users and the FT has 189,022 paying digital subscribers. The newspaper, printed at 24 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 401,898 (ABC figures October 2010).