MANAMA: Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) announced it has achieved positive results and strong growth again in 2020, posting a net profit of BD563,000 despite the years’ challenging economic and credit environment.
During the year, the bank significantly stepped up its financing activity to support SMEs with total disbursements increasing by 179 per cent to BD106 million (2019 - BD37.9m).
The bank was also a focal point for assisting SMEs under the government’s Liquidity Support Scheme.
With the support of Tamkeen, the bank also continued offering financing under the ‘BDB-Riyadat scheme’.
The scheme aims to support women-owned enterprises and help them grow.
During the year, an amount of BD1.067m was disbursed under the scheme while total disbursements from the initiation of the scheme till end-2020 stood at BD5.723m.
BDB grew its financing portfolio to BD162m while substantially improving the quality of its financing portfolio and maintaining healthy Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 64pc.
The year also saw the bank ramp up its digitalisation efforts.
In line with BDB’s digital transformation, the group launched the digital transformation programme Ru’ya where the bank has selected the front-to-back digital offering, TCS BaNCS Global Banking Platform enabled with APIs and cognitive tools such as AI and analytics facilitating the launch of one of the region’s first digital state-of-the-art SaaS-based core banking system on the cloud.
Ru’ya will further strengthen BDB’s position as Bahrain’s premier SME Bank, streamlining the bank’s offering of innovative products and services to the SME community through a state-of-the-art omnichannel platform.
BDB Group chief executive Sanjeev Paul said: “The performance of the bank during 2020 was the result of significant efforts, the ability of the bank to successfully adapt its strategies during this extraordinary period of time, and the continued invaluable support of Finance and National Economy Ministry, the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) and Tamkeen.
“During 2020, we focused our efforts to provide the optimum support, both in terms of financing and support services, to the SME sector, considering it to be one of the most vulnerable sectors impacted by the crisis. In addition to providing SMEs with funding to support liquidity, businesses were also provided with relief in the form of deferred loan instalments and waivers of rent for businesses utilising the bank’s incubator centres,” Mr Paul added.
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