Yangon, Myanmar, 11 April 2019 — KBZ Bank, Myanmar’s largest privately-owned bank, is celebrating the upcoming Myanmar New Year with new award wins of the ‘Best Domestic Bank’ and the ‘Best Digital Bank’ from Asiamoney Best Bank Awards 2019: Myanmar. This is the second time that Asiamoney, the voice of the banking and capital markets industries in Asia for the past 30 years, has awarded KBZ Bank the ‘Best Domestic Bank’ in Myanmar award, with the first presented in 2017 as part of the inaugural year of the annual awards programme.

Asiamoney, part of the Euromoney Institutional Investor Group, undertakes a stringent and thorough selection process to determine the Best Bank Awards winners from 19 Asian countries across eight categories. Managed by a team of senior journalists, Asiamoney evaluates banks in each country which have excelled across a range of core banking activities over the past 12 months. After receiving detailed submissions from participants in each market, the preliminary information is personally verified by a team of senior editors who visit each country to meet leading bankers and gather client and competitor feedback.

The awards were announced by Asiamoney on 25 March 2019, with KBZ Bank recognised for its achievements in 2018, including the introduction of a one-stop service centre in 2018 for Myanmar’s expanding small and medium-sized enterprises sector, providing a wide range of products from loan applications and customer matching to official compliance procedures. On the digital front, KBZ Bank successfully launched the KBZPay mobile wallet product last year, which has since attracted one million customers and 65,000 merchants and agents.

Commenting on this achievement, Mike DeNoma, Chief Executive Officer of KBZ Bank said, “This recognition of KBZ Bank is a result of our firm commitment to be the domestic champion in Myanmar and achieve our vision of  100% financial inclusion. Through KBZPay, we will connect millions of people with their families, friends and communities and enable Myanmar to leap ahead as a mobile-first economy.”

Recently, KBZ Bank announced that its customers created history by performing over one million transactions with KBZPay in just five days from 28 March to 1 April 2019, signalling progress toward a mobile-first Myanmar.

Customers performed an extensive range of transactions with KBZPay, including mobile top-up and data pack purchases, cash-in or money deposits, cash-out or money withdrawals, QR-code payments at merchants, bill payments QuickPay, and Over the Counter (OTC) remittances. This significant milestone achieved its goal to encourage customers nationwide to experience the benefits of cashless transactions.

Previously, KBZ Bank received the following awards from Asiamoney:

• 2018: ‘Best Bank of CSR’ in Myanmar 2018 for social initiatives undertaken by Brighter Future Myanmar Foundation

• 2017: ‘Best Domestic Bank’ and ‘Best Commercial and Investment Bank’

KBZ Bank’s awards from Asiamoney follows after it was awarded the prestigious ‘Bank of the Year – Myanmar 2018’ award by Financial Times’ The Banker in December 2018.  Regarded as the industry standard for banking excellence, this award is highly sought after and celebrates the best-in-class of banking globally.