MANAMA, 4 November 2007 — Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) yesterday unveiled an ambitious business plan taking the bank to the new heights of progress and development by tapping the opportunities across the Gulf countries including listing on various GCC stock exchanges to enhance its equity base.
Chairman Khalid Abdulla Al-Bassam said the bank’s consistent growth since 2004 in financial gains was a success story behind its expansion plan for 2007 and beyond. The chairman, along with Managing Director Nabeel Ahmed Ameen and acting CEO Mohammed Ebrahim Mohammed, unveiled the bank’s future plans in a press conference held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Spa yesterday.
This year BisB launched a number of key initiatives and future strategies with a view to fully achieve its vision and to optimize the benefits from its numerous resources and various capabilities.
Al-Bassam said: “In 2004 bank recorded a net income of BD3.7 million which rose to BD7.4 million in 2005 and BD13 million last year showing very healthy upward trends. During the first nine months of this year, the net income rose to BD17.5 million, which shows that if we compare the 2004 with the ongoing income trends, it is almost a five-fold increase in net income alone.”
“BisB now inhabits an increasingly competitive environment where customer expectations are ever higher. It is no longer enough to be the first Islamic bank in Bahrain, we have to be the best bank in Bahrain,” he pointed out.
The bank has also established its fully-owned BD10 million real estate subsidiary “Aba’ad”, with the aim of benefiting from the growth of property business in Bahrain and the regional countries that is not to mention its overwhelming success in completing the increase of capital last September.
“Our brand is our reputation and our reputation is the sum of all interactions that people have with us from reading our advertising to experiencing our products, from what our bank branches look like to how people are treated when they enter. Our new brand identity distils who we are and what we do. It reflects our core attributes which primarily are summarized as financially solid, trustworthy and efficient. It shares our brand values, the values that the bank believes in — partnership, fairness and transparency. In short, our brand identity is everything that identifies and differentiates Bahrain Islamic Bank from the competition,” Al-Bassam further said. “The bank is well positioned in the market for banking, financing and investment opportunities on behalf of individuals and institutions with the highest ethical standards and unwavering commitments to the principles of Islamic Shariah,” he added.
The acting CEO said: “28 years ago in 1979 Bahrain Islamic Bank was established as the first Islamic commercial bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We have grown consistently and steadily since then to become a leading Islamic institution, to be publicly listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange. Today with 12 branches on the island and around 300 team members, we are well positioned to meet the strong and growing demand in the market for banking, financing and investment opportunities. We have come a long way.”
The bank’s total assets as of 2006 is over BD436 million.
