BDB posts nine-month profit, reaffirms support for SMEs

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain Development Bank (BDB), the Kingdom’s Premier development bank and leading provider of financial and incubation services to SMEs, reaffirmed its support for the SME sector, which was one of the most affected by the ill effects of the pandemic.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the bank posted a profit of BD 489 thousand (PY 1.06 million), continuing its trend of a positive bottom line to remain sustainable.

During this period, BDB disbursed loans/Islamic financing aggregating to BHD 23 m, Of these disbursals BD6.7 m were under the Liquidity Support Fund Scheme (LSF) sponsored by the Ministry of Finance and National Economy.

Cumulative disbursements under the LSF scheme since introduction in December 2019 reached BHD 43.7 m.

Loans under the LSF scheme provided at a concessional rate of interest cost together with the instalment deferments in line with CBB guidelines amounting to BHD 84.5 m went a long way to help 734 SMEs mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

The bank also reaffirmed its commitment to Women & Youth.

Sixty-five financing facilities were sanctioned, out of which 46 were for women.

Financing facilities aggregating to BD 1.04 m were disbursed under the ‘BDB Riyadat Scheme’, which with Tamkeen support, is a tailor-made programme for enterprises owned by Bahraini women.

Cumulative disbursements since inception under the scheme reached BHD 6.8 m.

Overall, these facilities are expected to generate additional investments in projects of BHD 11.4 m and facilitate the creation of 226 new jobs.

Total assets as of September 30, 2021, stood at BD 235 m, up 4 % from the previous FY (BD 226 m).

The bank continues to maintain good liquidity and a healthy CAR.

The bank adopts a very conservative approach towards provisioning for ECL to minimize the probability of spillover of the ill effects of the pandemic to future years.

In addition, the bank has made major progress in its digital transformation journey (Ru’aya) which is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2022.

Sanjeev Paul, Group Chief Executive Officer of BDB Group, attributed the success to the adoption & implementation of a focused and consistent strategy of supporting SMEs in line with its core mandate. He added that the bank was able to meet the needs of SMEs in a very challenging operating environment considering the pandemic.