For the fourth year in a row, Íslandsbanki has been selected as Iceland’s best bank by international financial magazine Euromoney.
The judging panel’s decision was based on the Bank’s strong operating results and overall strategy It also took account of Íslandsbanki’s vision of providing the best banking services in Iceland and its success in implementing innovation aimed at simplifying banking business. Íslandsbanki enjoys high customer satisfaction levels and has received top scores on the Icelandic Customer Satisfaction Index for the past three years.
Each year, Euromoney selects the best banks in nearly 100 countries for its Awards for Excellence.
In 2015, Íslandsbanki presented its vision of providing its customers with the best banking services in Iceland. The Bank has also introduced a number of innovations aimed at simplifying banking activities. Among them is Kass, a new payment app that has been well received, and an electronic credit assessment process for mortgage loans, which saves customers a trip to the Bank. Concurrent with these digital developments, the Bank has cancelled borrowing fees for first-time home-buyers, thereby reaching out to this steadily growing group.
Use of Íslandsbanki’s mobile device app is growing month by month, with active users now totalling about 50,000, almost half of all customers.
The Bank’s after-tax profit for 2015 totalled ISK 20.6bn, and its return on equity was 10.8%. Efforts to simplify operations have been successful. Branches in operation has gone down from 19 to 14. The Bank has been an active issuer of foreign-denominated bonds, and rating agency Standard & Poor’s has assigned a positive outlook to the Bank’s BBB- credit rating.
“It is a great honour to receive the Awards for Excellence from Euromoney. Íslandsbanki employees work with the aim of realising our vision of providing the best banking services in Iceland. I am therefore extremely proud of the progress we have made in recent years. We are going through a period of change in banking services, where customers want expertise but conduct most of their banking business by computer or smartphone. We are therefore working hard to embrace our customers’ new and changed requirements and provide them the service that they need. I am very proud of our success in recent years, and we look forward with great anticipation to the exciting times that lie ahead.”