In line with CBB’s mandatory Business Continuity requirements and following the highest international standards, Bahrain’s pioneer in retail and commercial banking, BBK, has been actively pursuing its Business Continuity Management programme. BBK, one of the first bank’s in the Kingdom of Bahrain to have built its own dedicated and state-of-art Business Continuity Center so as to be able to provide its customers and stakeholders with a continuity of critical banking services, and at the same time secure its vital assets in case of any unforeseen incident.

To ensure that the Business Continuity Management programme and the Center are fully equipped and functional, BBK conducted a Crisis Management Simulation Exercise on the 11th of December, 2010. The purpose of this exercise was to simulate a real life scenario, and then subsequently put the bank-wide Business Continuity Plan in practice to ensure that critical banking services could be recovered and made available to its customers. This exercise was managed and coordinated by the Bank’s dedicated Business Continuity Team.

During the exercise, the complete BBK Executive Management Team including the CE Mr. Abdulkarim Bucheery, General Manager of Shared Services Mr. Reyadh Sater, and General Manager of Banking Group Sh. Rashed Al Khalifa, participated and put into practice the Crisis Management Plan. They were given multiple strategic challenges to manage during the simulation exercise. While the Executive Management was managing the crisis strategically, the Business Continuity Teams from the Business and Support units were managing the crisis at a tactical and operational level by exercising their respective Business Continuity Plans. Approximately 120 employees from all areas of the Bank participated in this exercise during which all critical components of the Business Continuity Plan were put into practice successfully. From the time of the sudden initiation of the crisis situation, to the actual recovery and availability of critical banking services to its customers – the complete plan was executed smoothly.

A simulation Media Conference was conducted to exercise the handling of real-life media questions during a crisis. Mr. Abdulkarim Bucheery, Mr. Reyadh Sater, Sh. Rashed Al Khalifa, along with the Head of Corporate Communications and the Head of Business Continuity Planning Unit constituted the BBK Media Conference panel with the rest of the attendees acting as media representatives.

At the closing of the exercise, Mr. Abdulkarim Bucheery expressed his satisfaction and commented “The success of the Business Continuity simulation exercise is a major milestone for BBK. It demonstrates the Bank’s commitment towards its customers, its aim to always strive for excellence and dedication towards its stakeholders and at the same time ensuring its compliance with all requirements of the local regulatory bodies. We are always proud to be at the forefront of banking services in Bahrain with the most advanced technology and to also remain the market leaders in terms of compliance and innovation.”