National Bank of Abu Dhabi : NBAD in the top 3 of S&P/Hawkamah Index

National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the safest bank in Emerging markets and the Middle East by Global Finance magazine, has been ranked among the top three organisations in the S&P/Hawkamah ESG Pan Arab Index for the 4th consecutive year, reflecting NBAD's strong environmental, social and corporate governance practices and robust standing among publicly-traded MENA companies.

The index, developed by The Institute for Corporate Governance (Hawkamah), measures the top 150 Arab listed companies based on their performance on nearly 200 environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics.

NBAD has been in the top 10 of the index since it was established, improving its position from eighth in 2010, to sixth in 2011, and in the top three since 2012.

'We value this measure highly as we believe that the index provides an effective measure of our sustainability as a company, said Abdulla M.S. AbdulRaheem, the Deputy Group Chief Executive of NBAD. 'As one of the key tools identified to drive our strategy in this area, the Index ensures we aim for greater public disclosure of information, which is important to our business and our stakeholders. We are committed to being accountable to our stakeholders and believe our transparency and ESG performance serves as a model to encourage the market to continue adopting these practices which will strengthen our national and regional economy'

Mr. AbdulRaheem added: 'This forms part of a wider initiative at NBAD which will make sustainability a core business focus in the coming years. In 2015, we adopted the Equator Principles, the first bank in the UAE to sign up to the global benchmark for evaluating and mitigating environmental and social risks, and we intend to do more in this area.'

The Hawkamah ranking confirms that NBAD compares strongly against most of the top listed companies in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the UAE. NBAD has also been recognised for our corporate governance strategy by the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group (ADSG) report.

For further information on NBAD's Sustainability activities you can download the bank's latest Corporate Sustainability Report 'Creating Value for our Stakeholders'. For Corporate Governance.