Held in Las Vegas, the bank won the world title in the award category for larger contact centres employing more than 250 agents. The bank's contact centre in Glasgow had already beaten more than 400 entrants to win the regional award – which covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa – in September.  At the Las Vegas finals, the bank had to beat off a total of 24 finalists from around the globe to take the top spot.

Over 400 staff at the call centre deal with enquiries from customers of Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank and other subsidiaries of its parent company, National Australia Bank UK.

Kevin Page, Clydesdale Bank's head of contact centres, said: "We have made a substantial investment in recent years to ensure that customers get the best possible service when they contact us and I'm delighted to see the efforts of our staff recognised in this way."

Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell added: "This is wonderful news - not only for Clydesdale Bank but the whole of the Scottish call centre industry."

The Contact Centre World Awards are organised by ContactCenterWorld.com, a leading global support organisation for the call centre industry.  Announcing the winners Raj Wadhwani, President of ContactCenterWorld.com commented: "The competition was at an exceptionally high level and the voting was close - it was like the Olympics. It was a battle between companies and nations for the top awards and everyone who participated took so much away.”

Source: Yorkshire Post, BBC News, ContactCenterWorld.com