Press Release.
Manama, Bahrain: The NBB Group, comprising of the National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) and Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB), has been awarded the Collaboration in Resilience Award by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) Middle East Awards. This award underscores the demonstration of synergy and cooperation between the Group’s entities as they move into the last leg of their ongoing transformation.
Showcasing its effective teamwork and active collaboration, the NBB Group is the first in the Kingdom to be awarded in this category. The Group has been able to work together to overcome various challenges and has further enhanced its organisational resilience in the face of these obstacles, as it established a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach alongside a team of professionals working closely to exemplify the Group’s organisational resilience based on international best practices and standards.
Commenting on this occasion, Razi Abdullatif Amin, Group Chief Information Officer, said: “This award is an outstanding achievement for the NBB Group, marking its first year of successful operation as an integrated entity. Our teams’ constant and unwavering efforts have been recognised as we deliver our first set of Group-wide strategic projects aimed towards further emphasising our resilient capabilities. Our Group strategic roadmap has enabled us to introduce a larger set of innovative projects and initiatives that will benefit the future of the Group for years to come.”
Ali Abdulhasan Al-Majid, Head of Information Security at NBB, added: “The BCI award is a testament to our dedicated joint efforts, and demonstrates the efficacy of our cohesive teamwork over the course of this past year. Our joint practices have allowed us to adopt the best approaches available in both organisations, resulting in the improvement of various functions within NBB and BisB, and strengthened the resilience of the entire Group via strategic changes and the implementation of Group-wide centralised functions to streamline our overall Group operations.”
Mohamed Isa Hammad, Head of Information Security at BisB, stated: “This award marks our consistent efforts and ongoing commitment towards a unified Group operation, as we strive to adopt global best practices in the continuity and resilience fields. Our multidisciplinary team will continue to introduce additional enhancements to further streamline our processes and execute our strategic plans accordingly.”
The NBB Group has made ongoing strides within the industry to further cement its organisational resilience and embed it within its core business practices and initiatives. The Group’s entities have had many achievements throughout the year, whereby NBB and BisB collaborated in further modernising and enhancing their infrastructure, BCM frameworks and practices. This practice has helped demonstrate how the Group’s professional team members are actively participating in enhancing and developing local regulations, participating in international BCI initiatives and recommending enhancements to the international ISO22301 guidelines through international advisory committees.
The Group has additionally executed several successful innovative projects, such as the region’s first SWIFT infrastructure hosted on the Amazon Web Service (AWS) Cloud in Bahrain, as well as consolidation of the Group’s disaster recovery and IT operations infrastructure in Batelco’s Data Centre. Through these initiatives, the NBB Group has been able to streamline business continuity management practices by relying on leading cloud-based BCM solutions.
BCI is an international professional body that advocates for the advancement of business continuity and resilience within various institutes and has organised its awards programme across 6 regions worldwide. Through this category, BCI acknowledges the active participation and resilience that has become an essential element within the NBB Group as it strives to carry forth an organisation embedded with ESG initiatives and innovative collaborations that enhance the organisation, adding value to society and the economy.
