Citi UAE & Citi Egypt Win World’s Best Internet Bank Awards Issued by Global Finance

Dubai – Citi today announced that it has won four awards in the first round of Global Finance magazine’s awards for the “World’s Best Internet Bank 2006” in the Middle East and Africa Region in the following categories:

* UAE: Best Consumer Internet Bank & Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Bank

* Egypt: Best Consumer Internet Bank & Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Bank

Global Finance is an international finance magazine with a circulation in over 158 countries. The magazine covers a wide spectrum of subjects including corporate financing, capital markets, monetary policies, banking operations and risk management. Global winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in New York in November.

“Winning banks were selected based on the following criteria: strength of strategy for attracting and servicing online customers, success in getting clients to use web offerings, growth of online customers, breadth of product offerings, evidence of tangible benefits gained from internet initiatives and web site design and functionality,” according to Global Finance.

Mohammed Al-Shroogi, Managing Director for the Middle East and Chief Executive Officer for Citi in the UAE, said: “Global Finance awards speak volumes about Citi’s state-of-the-art platform and advanced internet capabilities. We are delighted that our efforts and success have been recognized by Global Finance through this and other country awards.”

Citi has been at the forefront of developing Internet-based delivery capabilities for both retail customers (Citibank Online) and corporate clients (CitiDirect) in the Middle East, in addition to other B2B e-commerce initiatives that provide clients with full procurement solutions. By using Citibank Online (CBOL), customers can perform a variety of regular banking transactions, such as checking balances or downloading account activity statements. Moreover, customers can transfer funds worldwide, pay utility bills, redeem reward points, order cheque books or subscribe to a number of value added services, round-the-clock and, anywhere in the world.

Citi has been in the Middle East for nearly 50 years and currently offers consumer banking services in the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. Citibank, the consumer banking arm of Citi, is expanding its operations in all three countries.