Manama: Al Salam Bank-Bahrain (Al Salam Bank), a leading regional Islamic bank and provider of a comprehensive range of innovative and unique Shari’a-compliant financial products and services, hosted annual Town Hall event virtually in order to share the Bank’s key milestones and success stories with its employees, as well as to provide more insight into the Bank’s strategic initiatives and direction for 2021 and beyond. Inspired by the events that transpired in 2020 in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the theme of the Al Salam Bank Town Hall was ‘Self-Reflection & Mindfulness’ where employees were encouraged to bring their shared experiences to the present.
Attended by over 300 employees, Rafik Nayed, Group Chief Executive Officer of Al Salam Bank hosted the event, which included key briefings by Anwar Mohammed Murad, Deputy CEO, Banking Division, Muna Al Balooshi, Head of Human Resources and Administration, and Mahmood Qannati, Head of Marketing and Communications.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your unwavering efforts and hard work, and to take a moment to appreciate how far we have come. We have been incredibly successful in implementing and rolling out our 2018 strategy for the past three years and, despite the impact of COVID-19, we have maintained steady progress achieving key milestones and success stories in 2020 alone,” Nayed, said.
Nayed announced more than 50 employee awards across multiple categories to honor employees who had gone over and above in their roles. “The year 2020 has been a year of challenges and a year of change. We have all had to learn quickly new ways of working, adapting to working from home with plenty of distractions. It has been a test of our levels of patience but also a chance for reflection and to learn more about ourselves. I would like to thank each and every one your relentless efforts, hard work and resilience during this year.”
“We have successfully increased our capital allocation to core banking activities in addition to significantly improving our corporate governance systems and processes across the board, achieving both increased efficiency and streamlining our internal and external processes through the integration of strategic optimization initiatives,” the Group CEO added.
He encouraged the employees of the Bank to continue to build upon their combined efforts while highlighting key focus areas for 2021 and beyond.
Anwar Mohammed Murad, Deputy CEO went on to highlight the Bank’s achievements in 2020, which included the introduction of digital banking channels such as WhatsApp Banking, the launch of digital account opening which eliminated the need to visit branches, the unveiling of the Bank’s first Virtual Branch, as well as the Al Salam Bank flagship Mobile application.
“In 2021, our focus remains on serving our customers. The new normal in a post-COVID-19 world is contactless and seamless interactions, and our main strategy will be to expand our retail and corporate customer base by accelerating digital roll-outs.”
