Bank Muscat celebrates 15th edition of Partners in Progress in gala event

In line with its commitment to

digital transformation and e-payments, Bank Muscat organised the 15th edition of its annual ‘Partners in Progress’ (PIP) awards ceremony at the Oman

Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC).

The grand event held under the auspices of Sheikh Waleed K

al Hashar, Chief Executive Officer, Bank Muscat, was attended by the members of the bank’s management team as well as representatives from the top merchant partners of the bank.

The bank CEO presented the PIP awards to senior officials and executives from winning institutions and companies covering a

total of 40 categories and congratulated them on their achievement.

The winners ranged from ministries and government institutions to companies operating in the automotive, airline, healthcare, telecommunications, tourism and retail sectors.

Nine ministries and government institutions won awards for the 'Best Government Institutions', including the Royal Oman Police, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, Oman Development Bank, Supreme Judiciary Council and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources.

As many as 31 companies won accolades for the ‘Top 40 Merchant of the Year’ category. They are as follows: Lulu Hypermarket, Carrefour, Makkah Hypermarket, Yas Modern Shopping, Regency International Company, Nesto Hypermarkets, Omantel, Ooredoo, Awasr Oman and Partners, Salam Air, Landmark Group, Shell Oman Marketing, Apparel International, Retail Global Fashion, OIFC, ONEIC, Al Shaya Group,

Malabar Gold, Al Romaizan Gold and Jewellery, Muscat Pharmacy, Pan Emirates Furniture, Saud Bahwan Automotive, Sharaf DG, Extra, Oman Interna

tional Container Terminal, Pizza Hut, Taageer Finance, Talabat, Al Qabayel Discount Center, Rivoli & Co and EMC.

Speaking on the occasion, Abdulnasir al Raisi, General Manager - Personal Banking,

extended his best wishes and congratulations to all the winners and reiterated the importance with which Bank Muscat values

its partnerships with government institutions and merchant partners. He added that the bank was looking forward to further enhancing and strengthening its partnerships and wished everyone even greater success in the

future. He extended his sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Government of Oman for guiding the digital transformation of the

economy and said that Bank Muscat would do its very best to facilitate achieving the goals of Oman Vision 2040.

Abdullah Hamood al Jufaili, Assistant General Manager - Digital Banking, Bank Muscat, said, “Every year, Bank Muscat has been recording positive growth in online transactions thanks to the bank’s excellent partnership with our merchant partners. We would also like to

express our sincere appreciation to the government of Oman for their important role in accelerating digital payments in the country. At the same time, we are delighted to be an important stakeholder in the Central Bank of Oman’s initiative to introduce Qr-based payments in Oman, which will add further value to our merchant partners.”

Jufaili added: “It is a matter of great pride that our merchant outlet network has now grown to

almost 20,000 with more than 30,000 POS terminals and 500 e-commerce merchants processing more than 115mn trans

actions annually. The payments sector is going through an intense period of innovation and going ahead, we promise that Bank Muscat will continue to

launch many more exciting services in line with our vision ‘to serve you better every day’.

Bank Muscat’s continuously upgraded Internet and mobile banking services offer customers a fast, comfortable and secure banking experience. Today, over

1.3mn retail banking customers are using various features like real-time bill payments for utilities in Oman, fund transfers

within the bank and in Oman, fund transfers across the world via the SWIFT network; speed transfers to a number of countries; and Zakat calculator and charity payments amongst a number of other services and

benefits. There has also been a rapid uptake in contactless payment through its various debit, credit and prepaid cards as well as contactless wearables.

Bank Muscat’s many achievements have been well recognised with the bank winning several awards in the recent past including being recognized as one of the Top 30 banks as well as Top

100 Companies in the region by Forbes Middle East. The bank has also won a number of prestigious awards from international publications like Global Finance, Euromoney, EMEA Finance, and The Banker.