Kuwait, November 7, 2007:  Global Finance, the world's most influential finance publication, has presented Gulf Bank with the award for the Best Bank in Kuwait in 2007 during its World's Best Banks Awards ceremony held in Washington DC.

The award was presented to Gulf Bank's General Manager for International Banking, Mr. Khaled Al-Mutawa, by Mr. Joseph Giarraputo, President of Global Finance, during the recently held Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington DC. The awards ceremony was attended by Central Bank Governors, Finance Ministers and senior banking executives from around the world.

The Best Bank Award was judged by Global Finance's editorial team and having Gulf Bank identified as one among 110 countries, Mr. Al Mutawa said he was very proud to have received the award on the Bank's behalf in Washington.  "It was a tremendous honour to represent the Bank at such a prestigious international occasion and with banking colleagues from all over the world present at the event and have the opportunity to put Gulf Bank and Kuwait on the global stage.

"The Global Finance Best Bank Award demonstrates the progress Gulf Bank has made in becoming Kuwait's preferred local bank," he added.

According to the criteria set by Global Finance the best banks are those that understand the needs of their customers and provide the products and services that are in demand and that produce mutual success.

Gulf Bank CEO, Mr. Louis Myers commented: "This award is well-deserved and a clear recognition of Gulf Bank's remarkable success and a fitting reward for all the hard work by our staff without whom we cannot continue to deliver the best quality and most innovative services to our customers here in Kuwait.

In selecting this year's winners, Global Finance considered factors that ranged from objective criteria including growth in assets, profitability, geographic reach, strategic relationships, new business development and product innovation to more subjective criteria that included the opinions of equity and credit-rating analysts, banking consultants and others in the industry.

Global Finance has more than 250,000 readers in more than 158 countries and is an authoritative source of information for CEOs, CFOs, Treasurers and other financial officers responsible for making investments and strategic business decisions for global companies and financial institutions.

Global Finance has more than 250,000 readers in more than 158 countries and is an authoritative source of information for CEOs, CFOs, Treasurers and other financial officers responsible for making investments and strategic business decisions for global companies and financial institutions.