Mashreq (bank)

Mashreq Bank was established in 1967 in Dubai as the Bank of Oman, prior to formation of the UAE, under a decree of the Ruler of Dubai – Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum.

In 1993, the bank changed its name to Mashreq Bank and is now one of the UAE's leading financial institutions. It has a strong retail and corporate banking presence throughout the Persian Gulf, with branches in Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The Mashreq branch network extends across the UAE, with 50 percent of households banking with the company. It also has customer service centers in key retail locations and one of the largest ATM networks in the country. In addition the bank has overseas offices in 11 countries across Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.

The first branch of the Bank of Oman – as it was then known – opened in Deira in 1967, which was followed by a second branch opening on the other side of Dubai Creek in Bur Dubai. The next few years saw additional branches open in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi. In 1971 the UAE was formed and the Qatar-Dubai Riyal (QRD) was replaced with the Dirham (AED) as the official currency of the state. The Bank of Oman became the first UAE bank to open a branch in Doha, Qatar.

Five years later the bank established a branch network, reaching 10 local branches in 1976. The Deira headquarters opened a year later and all of the head office functions – previously housed in various branches – moved to the building. Soon after, Khorfakkan, Riqqa and Dhaid branches were inaugurated, as the bank's assets crossed the AED2 billion mark.

From 1978 the company turned its focus to more international ventures. Business extended to markets in Egypt, Pakistan, London and Hong Kong. In addition, with the opening of branches in Kalba, Dibba, Fujairah and Um Al Quwain, the bank became the first and only bank in the UAE with a presence in all the seven Emirates.

A training centre, which began life as a library, was established in 1981 to help workers enhance their skills and knowledge. Subsequently, it expanded to a fully fledged training facility catering to all learning and development needs of the bank's staff. As a department it managed all in-house and external training needs of the bank. Shortly after this, it became the first local bank to introduce credit cards with Visa tie-up.

In 1983 the bank introduced the UAE's first ATM dispenser. This was made possible by connecting all of the branches to a central database. The bank started issuing Visa traveler's cheques in the same year and became the first bank in the region to get global Visa network connectivity. Profits crossed the AED100 million mark and a branch was opened in New York.

As the new-look bank continued to grow, operations were centralized and the branches reworked. Branches got modeled as showrooms with tellers and customer service stations only. All back office functions were centralized away from branches. In 16 years the bank's assets grew from AED1 billion to 10 billion.

In 1993 the name of the bank was changed from Bank of Oman to Mashreq.

The first chip-based credit card was introduced to the region by Mashreq in 2004.

Overseas operations were centralized in 2005. In the first phase, Hong Kong and UK operations were handled by Dubai. Bank's profit exceeded AED1 billion the same year, while assets reached AED50 billion in 2006.

The system for risk modeling was introduced with probability of default and loss given default calculations. A retail application scorecard was also introduced. All centralized operation units and mindscape were moved to the dedicated twin building at the Dubai Outsource Zone in 2008. A total of 10 branches and a Mashreq Gold Centre were established during 2008 in Egypt. Kuwait operations also commenced in 2009.

Five key areas: commercial and investment banking; retail banking; treasury and capital markets; international banking and Islamic banking.

• Islamic banking
• Noor Bank
• Emirates NBD

• Mashreqbank profile on Zawya
• The Institute of Export page