Bahrain Development Bank (BDB), the Kingdom’s premier SME Bank, announced that it has achieved positive results and strong growth again in 2020, posting a net profit of BHD 563K 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% to BHD 106 million (2019 BHD 37.9 million).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 BHD 1.067 million was disbursed under the scheme while total disbursements from the initiation of the scheme till end of 2020 stood at BHD 5.723 million.

BDB grew its financing portfolio to BHD 162 million while substantially improving the quality of its financing portfolio and maintaining healthy Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 64%.

The year also saw the bank ramp up its digitalization efforts. In line with BDB’s digital transformation, the group launched the digital transformation program 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.

Commenting on the Bank’s performance, Mr. Sanjeev Paul, Chief Executive Officer of BDB Group, 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 the Ministry of Finance and National Economy (MOFNE), 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 SME’s with funding to support liquidity, businesses were also provided with relief in the form of deferred loan instalments and waivers of rent for businesses utilizing the bank’s incubator centers.”

Mr. Paul added “We take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Prime Minister for their wise leadership, and the many government ministries and institutions for their continued support. I also thank our Board of Directors for their ongoing guidance and extend my personal appreciation to our employees for their continued hard work dedication in what was a particularly challenging year.”