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| Troop, al-Sulaiti and Keith Bradley with other executives announcing the opening of three new branches yesterday |
In addition, the bank will open a new ‘prestige branch’ later this year, to serve the bank’s elite customers.
Speaking at a press conference, Ahmed al-Sulaiti, head, retail banking, said: “Each of these new branches offers retail banking services; customers can open current and savings accounts; apply and open new accounts, as well as come for financial advice from our knowledgeable and helpful staff. Each branch has a dedicated corporate and business banking office located within. This means that rather than travel to our headquarters in Grand Hamad Street, our corporate and business customers can now choose based on the most convenient location to them.”
According to al-Sulaiti, Islamic banking in Qatar has gone through significant restructuring due to the new regulations.
“Branches continue to play a pivotal role in personal financial services and are critical to our strategy in Qatar. The opening of new branches underlines our commitment to developing the Shariah-compliant financial market in Qatar and offering first-class banking services via comprehensive branch coverage,” he added.
Chief executive officer, Steve Troop, said: “Located in Al Sadd, Al Rayyan and Al Fardan Tower in West Bay, these branches occupy wonderfully convenient locations and offer our customers first class, Shariah-compliant banking. We are delighted to open three new branches in Qatar, where the demand for Shariah-compliant financial services continues to grow rapidly. The bank is committed to meeting our customers’ needs for personalised and innovative banking services.”
Troop also said that it was not likely that the bank would be listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange in 2011, but said that it was not necessarily related to economic problems in Europe.
Looking to the future, Keith Bradley, general manager, and head of banking, said: “The bank has been in the process, in the last few months, of building a strong corporate team.”
“It is now 80% in place, and is very active in the market, both with government companies and with the private sector to identify opportunities where we can support the development of Qatar’s infrastructure and the other facilities that Qatar needs for 2022. Its no coincidence either that we have just had an extraordinary general assembly where it was agreed that we would raise our capital, and one of the key drivers for that capital raising is to ensure that we have sufficient capital to meet the requirements of Qatar’s development. So we are very much positioning ourselves to be a leading player in the development of all of the things that Qatar is going to need for 2022,” he added.