The Banking Executive Magazine - April 2021

Boubyan Bank Al-Majed went on to highlight prominent achievements during Q1 of this year, the most significant thereof was the bank’s regional and international success in covering the USD 500 million sukuk issuance at 3.95% annual profit rate. He added: “The total subscription re- quests exceeded USD 1.3 billion (the issuance was oversubscribed by 2.6 fold the issued sukuk). This confirms Boubyan Bank’s international and re- gional status and reputation, gained owing to its achievements over the past years across many levels.” ** THE BEST IN CUSTOMER SERVICE On the other hand, the crisis caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pan- demic in Kuwait has revealed the strength of Boubyan Bank and how it continued with its quality customer service without compromising the high levels maintained over the past years. This helped the bank continue topping the pyramid of customer service in Kuwait, which was con- firmed by being named the Best Is- lamic Bank in Customer Service for the eleventh year in a row since 2010 by Service Hero, the interna- tional consumer-driven customer sat- isfaction index. Furthermore, as a part of the growth plans for our bank’s branches across various areas of Kuwait to serve its customers, the bank inaugurated its new Mubarkiya Branch that will serve both retail and corporate cus- tomers. The branch is divided into two main parts; one to serve retail customers while the other will be serving corporate customers. The bank continued supporting its human resources by announcing the acceptance of a new group of em- ployees in GUST’s MBA program, which has been launched since 10 years to support the bank’s human resources, making Boubyan the only bank that supports its employees in their journey to earn an MBA by pro- viding them with moral support and financial incentives. Since 2012, more than 100 male/fe- male employees earned their MBA degrees from GUST within the framework of the joint program by Boubyan and GUST, which is man- aged by Itqan Academy, the training arm of the bank. Meanwhile on another front, the bank started a staff campaign two months ago to encourage its employ- ees to get vaccinated. This campaign was an instant success since the number of vaccinated employees jumped to more than 30% and is ex- pected to grow over the coming weeks to reach the targeted percent- age by the government. ** SERVING OUR SOCIETY AND INTERACTION WITH OUR CUSTOMERS In an attempt to support the govern- ment efforts, Boubyan Bank has launched a campaign to encourage its customers and employees to get the Covid-19 vaccine to reach the first one million of vaccinated people in Kuwait in order to achieve herd immunity, thereby making Boubyan the first among local banks to practi- cally support these efforts. The campaign included a group of activities which will begin with col- laboration with a number of Boubyan SMEs customers, where the bank’s customers will earn free prod- ucts from these SMEs upon showing the Vaccination Certificate. Through this type of events, the bank will achieve two goals; supporting the bank’s SMEs customers, and giv- ing simple gifts to customers holding any of the various accounts with the bank to show appreciation for their keenness on the health of the society, the safety of others and that of Kuwait. To keep pace with the recent devel- opments in the social media scene, Boubyan Bank held an open discus- sion with its customers and the pub- lic through Boubyan Bank’s Diwaniya at Clubhouse, the famous App. This makes it the first bank and the first private sector institution to take such a step towards holding a transparent dialogue at the executive management’s level to exchange ideas with the attendance. ISSUE 148 APRIL 2021 the BANKING EXECUTIVE 63 Mr. Adel Al-Majed Vice-Chairman & Group Chief Executive Officer, Boubyan Bank