JEDDAH – In another confirmation of its leading position at all levels nationally, regionally and internationally, the National Commercial Bank (NCB) once again topped in the Middle East in terms of solvency "Tier 1 Capital", which is one of the most important criterion for measuring the strength of financial positions of banks and banking institutions, The Banker magazine said in its "Top 1000 World Banks" listing in July 2012 issue. In addition to attaining this prominent position among the leading banks in Saudi Arabia, the GCC and the Middle East as per core capital criteria, the international ranking of NCB has also improved from 121st position to the 116th position for the current year – among 1,000 banks covered by The Banker's listing. NCB Chief Executive Officer Abdulkareem Abu Alnasr said despite the challenges faced by the financial institutions regionally and globally over the past two years, such ranking reflects the bank's ability to maintain a strong financial position, quality of its assets and high liquidity. He reaffirmed that NCB enjoys financial solvency and a solid capital base that qualified it to earn recently the financial rating at A+ category with a stable outlook from the Standard & Poor's, the international credit rating agency according to its new classification methodology, which aimed to compare the credit rating of banks at a global level. NCB has won numerous international awards, the most important of which were the "Best Local Saudi Bank Award" for the year 2011 by EMEA Finance magazine; the Euromoney Award as the Best Bank providing services to outstanding retail clients in the Kingdom for the year 2011; the Best Islamic Finance Deal Award for the year 2011 from the Asset finance and banking magazine; the Award for the Best Bank in the Kingdom for the year 2011" granted by the Euromoney International; Award for the Best Bank in the Kingdom for the year 2011 granted by the CPI Financial Group; and the Best Wealth Manger Award from the CPI Financial News Group for the year 2011. – SG
