Submissions must be made using our clear guidelines below:

Who is eligible?
For most awards, banks and non-bank financial institutions including insurance companies, credit companies, non-bank finance companies, internet finance companies, cards associations, with retail operations in the regions and countries listed below:

An increasing number of fintech companies, marketplace platforms and other alternative providers are entering previously bank-related products and services. These companies will be assessed alongside financial institutions as far as you are able to make submissions based on the same submission kit attach to this document.

Asia Pacific:
Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

Africa:
We are increasing our coverage of Africa based on the regions with more developed retail banking industries and extending the programme to other countries as the industry involves. Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa,Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Central Asia:
Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

Middle East: :
Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates.

What questionnaires do I need to answer? 
Please note that we have a detailed audit based questionnaires for each player making the submission must complete and return to us. The questionnaires can be found in the attached excel sheets.

Please Note: Overall Best Retail Bank, Best Retail Bank by [Region] and Most Improved Retail Bank will be selected based on the submission made or Best Retail Bank by Country:
“The Asian Banker 1- Ex Retail FS Award 2018 - Best Retail Bank by Country”.

Will institutions that do not make a submission be considered? 
We encourage all financial institutions to make submissions. However, regardless of your submission, The Asian Banker makes its own assessment based on previous interviews, industry observations and our own research. Institutions that do not make submissions risk not having complete descriptions of their programmes fully considered, but where we find worthy institutions, we will initiate our own enquiries.

Is the information submitted made available to the public?
All information submitted is treated in strictest confidence and used for evaluation purposes only. The Asian Banker publishes generic reports and normalised benchmarks that discuss trends and emerging best practices from the programme. Our published profiles of retail banks and generic reports can be found in the Retail Banking Working Group which is available through membership. But we do not discuss any specific submission under any circumstances whatsoever.

When to submit?
To be considered for an award, a complete submission must reach us no later than January 15th, 2018, either in print or electronic format. For all financial data, please provide pro forma figures up to period for which audited figures are available. For full year figures, please provide pro forma figures in strict. The Asian Banker prefers electronic submissions to help protect our environment.

Other frequently asked questions

• If an institution has retail banking operations in more than one country, please only provide information and data concerning your local operation.
• Institutions with operations in more than one country in Asia Pacific, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa must apply separately for each domestic market in which they operate to enter the “Best Retail Bank by Country Award”.

Where should I post the submission to?
For submissions from banks to our Excellence Programme, please send directly to: excellence2018@theasianbanker.com. For more information, please visit our website at www.theasianbanker.com or contact, Ms.Janine Crisanto jcrisanto@theasianbanker.com.

Commitment to Integrity Statement
The Asian Banker is committed to the highest level of integrity in the conduct of all its awards programmes. Atno time, would we conduct ourselves ina manner that can give the industry any reasons to doubt the impartiality of the decision makingprocess. We make a clear distinction between the commercial aspects of running an awards programme which go towards underwriting the costs of the researchers and the time involved, and the neutrality with whichour researchers make their decisions.

We would like the industry to take the awards presented by the Asian Banker as the most prestigious recognition of their work as well as professional careers.

Funding this programme
We have examined many different forms of funding the awards programmes and concluded that the model we have currentlyis the mosteffective. A well-run awards programme is defined by several elements.

The Asian Banker awards programmes are run with the intention to discovere merging best practices and benchmarks that set high standards for the industry to meet and shape the future.

It must enquire if all possible candidates have made a submission. We find that fee-paying participation does not work as a model because candidates may "self-censor "their participation in anyone year based on their performance while we insist on examining all players.

The community element is extremely important as the awards programmed is used to inspire future progress in the industry. As such, the conference and awards dinners are an important component of the programmes. We insist that all winners attend the award ceremonies to ensure that the community element is intact. Forthis reason, winners can forfeit their recognition if theydo not attend the designated awards ceremonies.

We work and adhere to the following guidelines:
The entire enquiry process in the awards programmes is thorough and non- discriminatory. With this approach, we have discovered best practices in institutions that we have never had any forms of interactions in the past. We then initiate an enquiry process to discover new winners who may not be aware of this programme. The process is run on a neutral basis, and we make no distinction between institutions with which we have a commercial relationship and those that we do not. We conduct our research to identify the best possible candidates for the respective awards programmes.

In the conduct of our research, we do not accept any forms of gratuity, including transport, food, or conveniences and allowances of any kind from any institutions that we make an enquiry on. We undertake our own cost in travelling and communicating with all the different players.

The sales team in The Asian Banker has no influence in the selection process whatsoever. Although we have many instances where institutions make representation to the sales team ahead of the award process,there are strict "Chinese walls" with the research and editorial teams, where none of these information is communicated and least of all influence the decisions.

The sales team only becomes aware of the winners after the list is approved by the Council of Advisors and published to the winning institutions. The list is final and no amendments are made based on any commercial arrangements that arise thereafter.

Winning institutions are encouraged by the sales team to participate in commercial activities, most of which goes to underwrite the costs involved in conducting the research. There search process often takes between four to six months of time and work. During this they are not paid by any of the institutions that are being covered. We also do not accept sponsorships that can unduly influence the type of winners being selected.

The commercial arrangements are designed to add value to the winning institutions’ own marketing efforts as a result of winning the awards. They are also designed to create and sustain the community element that is required to bring the entire industry together, which in turn, adds to the prestige and recognition of these awards.

Any allegations of impropriety or lack of impartiality are taken seriously and brought to the attention of the Council of Advisors for their decision.