Bahrain Islamic Bank B S C : BisB Wins Award for ‘Best Islamic Bank Bahrain’ at the MEA Finance Awards 2021

Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) was recently awarded 'Best Islamic Bank - Bahrain', at the MEA Finance Awards 2021, which were held on November 3rd, 2021 at the Ritz Carlton JBR, Dubai. The awards seek to provide a high-profile platform to celebrate contributions to the advancement of the banking industry in the Middle East and Africa, recognizing financial institutions, technology solution providers, and individuals for their exceptional achievement and inspirational leadership in delivering innovative products and services of the highest value.

This year's judges recognized outstanding financial players and service providers based on several key factors, including the provision of exceptional products and services, digital readiness, responsiveness to the changing times and demonstrated innovative leadership. BisB was rewarded for its milestone achievements and Shari'a compliant financial offerings.

In the past two years alone, the Bank rolled out its self-service kiosks across all branches and financial malls available for use 24/7, launched their open banking service, the first of its kind in the market, in collaboration with Tarabut Gateway, allowing customers to easily view and manage multiple bank accounts through a single mobile application. In July 2021, the Bank unveiled the BisB Innovation Hub located in Riffa, renovating its former branch into a brand-new lifestyle that combines the best of both traditional and modern banking methods transacted by fully integrated digital kiosks in a single space. The hub additionally includes local coffee shop, Roast, which emerged as a winner of a competition hosted by the Bank last year as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting local entrepreneurs and SMEs in Bahrain.

The Bank also launched key digital innovations to both its retail and corporate segments, and successfully expanded its offering to serving a new untapped retail customer segment - the youth. In addition to a youth-led card intended for gamers, BisB released to the market its Future Leaders product, a cashless payment solution that enables parents to keep track of their children's transactions, while encouraging youth to better manage their spending and learn financial management early on. In the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank maintained its objective of catalysing its digital offerings in order to fulfil the market's needs to take transactions offline, as part of its vision to simplify its customers money matters.

Commenting on the occasion, the Chief Executive Officer of BisB, Hassan Jarrar, revealed, "We are pleased to have won this prestigious award, which is a reflection of our achievements and contributions to the financial sector, especially considering the world at large has been forced to face the consequences of the ongoing pandemic. We have continued to play an instrumental role in driving the industry's digital evolution by embedding avant-garde digital innovations at the core of our operations and financial offerings, and continue to deliver on our promise of simplifying our customers matters."