Kuwait – 23 April 2016: Gulf Bank today announced that it has been awarded the ‘Credit Card Product of the Year in the Middle East’ award from The Asian Banker, one of Asia’s leading consulting companies in financial services research, benchmarking, and intelligence. Gulf Bank received this award for its Gulf Rewards credit card program, an innovative and versatile loyalty program that offers its credit card customers free airline tickets and hotel accommodations at a wide range of global destinations. The awards ceremony was held on 20 April 2016 at the Middle East and Africa International Banking Convention at the Ritz Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre, United Arab Emirates.

Mr. César González-Bueno, Gulf Bank’s Chief Executive Officer said: “We are proud to receive this prestigious award, ‘The Asian Banker Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards’ are the undisputed performance benchmark of the best retail banks in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Our Gulf Rewards credit card product has been very positively received by our customers and this acknowledgment is further evidence of the exceptional nature of our program. This award not only reinforces Gulf Bank’s position in Kuwait as a market leader in retail financial services offering outstanding products coupled with superior customer service, it also demonstrates excellence at the regional Middle East level.”

Gulf Rewards, the fastest and most rewarding program in Kuwait, was designed to be unique and offer superior, easy-to-use benefits. Gulf Rewards includes Gulf Points, which can be redeemed for free airline tickets and hotels stays, and the Gulf Bank ‘Entertainer’ mobile app which gives our customers exclusive offers in Kuwait, UAE, and the United Kingdom. The customer experience is simple, existing customers use their Gulf Bank online banking account to view and redeem their Gulf Points for travel and accommodations, online or through their mobile phones. Customers earn Gulf Points for each transaction made with a Gulf Bank credit card; the more a customer spends on their credit card, the more points they will earn. All existing Gulf Bank credit card holders are automatically enrolled in Gulf Rewards and the program is free for the first year and a nominal fee charged thereafter. Gulf Points can be used at any time on any airline and also at 300,000 hotels worldwide.

The Gulf Bank ‘Entertainer’ app includes a vast portfolio and wide selection of quality merchant partners offering buy one get one free instant digital vouchers, and is available for download from the App Store for iOS/iPhone and the Google Play Store for Android. Customers are able to locate participating merchants through the geo-locator on their mobiles using Google Maps. Through the system they will receive instant offers at restaurants, entertainment venues, spas, and kid’s activities. Every time a customer makes a payment transaction with a participating Gulf Bank credit card through the ‘Entertainer’ app, they will also earn Gulf Points. It is estimated that the Gulf Bank ‘Entertainer’ app provides Gulf Bank credit card holders with savings of up to KD 10,000 yearly.

The reason for the prestigious nature of the The Asian Banker awards is the independence, rigor, impartiality, and transparency of the evaluation process. The awards programmes are run by a team of research managers who conduct extensive desk and field research, including many hours of interviews with shortlisted candidates. Each programme is predicated by a clear methodology and transparent score cards which are published and shared with the industry, and has a distinguished Council of Advisors that provide independent validation. Before being selected for the award, Gulf Bank was carefully assessed by The Asian Banker’s international panel of judges, who reviewed the bank’s overall performance and services against a stringent set of criteria and compared these results against its local and regional banking competitors. The awards process is audit based, it involved nominees submitting comprehensive data which are compared against regional peers in the same industry. The process also takes consumer feedback into the process where consumers rate and comment on banks a the www.bankquality.com website.

To learn more about any of Gulf Bank’s awards, products and services, visit one of Gulf Bank’s 56 branches, call the Customer Contact Center on 1805805, or log on to www.e-gulfbank.com , Gulf Bank’s bilingual website.