​The leading investment bank in the Arab world has been named the best brokerage house in Kuwait in Emea Finance’s 2011 Middle East Banking Awards. This award comes as the firm closed the year as the best broker for the second year in a row, and follows a string of other recognitions which the firm has received Cairo, 19 February 2012—EFG Hermes, the leading investment bank in the Arab world, has been awarded Best Broker in Kuwait by Emea Finance’s Middle East Banking Awards. The prestigious award recognises the firm’s outstanding performance and the Brokerage Division’s ongoing efforts. Throughout 2011, EFG Hermes IFA, the firm’s brokerage arm in Kuwait, maintained its number-two ranking in terms of total market executions. EFG Hermes has been previously recognized by Emea Finance’s Middle East Banking Awards, which single out excellence in various categories and across the region. Among other awards received last year, EFG Hermes took home the Best Brokerage House for 2010 in Oman – EJADA award from Muscat Securities Market, the Best Broker in Egypt and Kuwait from Global Investor Middle East Awards 2010, and Best Brokerage House in the Middle East from The Banker Middle East Industry Awards. “We are happy to receive this recognition from Emea Finance. This award underscores the significant achievements that EFG Hermes IFA’s team has made in Kuwait” said Ahmed Waly, Co-Head of EFG Hermes Securities Brokerage and Chief Executive Officer of EFG Hermes IFA. “The model for increasing our client base that we have implemented for our individual client category as well as our expanding online business has helped us to steadily grow,” added Waly. “EFG Hermes is positioned amongst the top players in the Kuwaiti securities industry with over a quarter of market executions by value going through the firm's trading desks,” says Christopher Moore, Publisher and CEO of EMEA Finance. “We are particularly impressed with the firm's ability to retain and to grow its high net worth and institutional business, which is demonstrated for an example by executing a majority of the foreign institutional volume on the Kuwaiti market.” added Moore. The Emea Finance award comes just one month after EFG Hermes closed 2011 as the largest broker in the Arab world by market share, according to market figures independently released by regional stock exchanges last month.