MUSCAT: Bank Muscat, the leading financial services provider in the Sultanate, was recently recognised by the New York headquartered multinational banking giant, Citibank, for its operational excellence in the field of dollar payments processing. Bank Muscat won the Straight-through-processing (STP) award from Citibank for outstanding performance in dollar-denominated fund transfers in both Commercial payments and Treasury payments. 

The award recognised Bank Muscat’s exceptional quality of SWIFT messages on dollar payments and maintaining an outstanding error-free rate for remittances. The award was based on evaluation of the quality and accuracy of SWIFT payment messages routed through Citibank, which was above 98 per cent for Treasury payments and above 95 percent for Commercial payments. Citibank is among Bank Muscat’s most prominent correspondent banks for dollar payments.

Speaking on the occasion, Zuwaina Abdullah Al Sharji, Assistant General Manager – Central Operations & Change Management, Bank Muscat, said: “We are delighted to win this award once again, which affirms Bank Muscat’s commitment to meeting the highest standards of quality in fund transfers. The bank’s exceptional quality in the delivery of commercial payments and transfers, facilitated by a state-of-the-art in-house payment architecture, helps to consistently maintain high SWIFT standards for automated processing throughout the payment chain and this is backed by our highly customer-centric services.”  

Citibank representatives commended the operational teams involved in processing dollar payments at Bank Muscat for the error-free rate, which was maintained consistently throughout the year. With emphasis on multiple channels and new products that cater to different sectors, the bank is focused on maintaining its leadership in offering cutting-edge products and services, including electronic payment and online services. Bank Muscat’s customer-centric vision and the adoption of global best practices have resulted in numerous accolades in the past. 

The bank’s performance has been consistently lauded by the international financial and banking community for decades, with the bank winning similar awards from Wells Fargo, Standard Chartered and JP Morgan in the past. Bank Muscat was also recognised as one of the “Top 100 Companies in the Middle East” and as one of the “Top 50 banks in the Region” by Forbes Middle East in 2021. It also won a number of awards from prestigious international publications like Global Finance, Euromoney, The Banker and EMEA Finance for its different lines of business in the recent past.