Global Finance awarded Baiduri Bank as the country winner in its annual World’s Best Banks 2022: Asia Pacific awards. This achievement marks Baiduri Bank’s seventh win with the awarding body and first international banking award in 2022 amid the challenging COVID-19 climate.

Speaking on the achievement, Ti Eng Hui, CEO of Baiduri Bank said, “During this challenging period, we continue to achieve growth in profits, assets and deposits. Our Corporate and Retail Banking businesses showed strong resilience in revenues and business activities in Brunei. These results are a testament of our strong business model and our ability to respond quickly to fast evolving circumstances.

In a press release issued by Global Finance, it lauded the Bank’s accomplishments, among them its digitisation drive which led to a significant increase in engagement figures. “The bank’s digital engagement ramped up last August while it transmitted pandemic related information to clients via an AI chatbot, which increased the engagement rate by 13% to 78%.”

Ti further elaborated on other key achievements which have contributed towards a successful year in 2021. “On top of enhancing our digital offerings, we have introduced a few strategic changes to our organisation structure which allows for a more focused approach towards serving our internal and external stakeholders. We also invested significantly in people development and recalibrated our CSR strategy in line with our mission to enrich, engage and empower the communities we serve.”

From a social responsibility perspective, the Bank redesigned its CSR framework to revolve around three key pillars, namely social, economic and environmental, to address pertinent needs which resulted in the introduction of new initiatives such as Urban Bites by Baiduri, a platform to empower local food truck businesses, as well as the launch of Mengalinga, a native mobile application for volunteers in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

Also in line with the Bank’s CSR efforts in addressing the COVID-19 situation in the country, the Bank introduced new channels for the public to conveniently donate for the national COVID-19 Relief Fund to support the government’s efforts in curbing the spread of the pandemic. It also carried out a number of donations to frontliners in the form of PPE as well as a donation of laptops to aid underprivileged students for home learning.

Internally, the Bank took strides in developing its workforce capabilities through the implementation of technological solutions, such as SAP SuccessFactors, a comprehensive human resource (HR) solution for core HR functions and talent management. The Bank also embarked on strategic partnerships with international training service providers to offer e-learning programmes of global standards. A six-month graduate apprenticeship programme was also introduced targeting recent graduates with the aim to enhance their employability skills with real-world working experience in the banking sector.

Global Finance is a monthly magazine founded in 1987 and has a circulation of 50,050 with readers in 163 countries. Its headquarters are based in New York with offices in London and Milan.

For more information on Baiduri Bank, visit www.baiduri.com, follow the Bank’s social media accounts or call its 24-hour Customer Helpline at 244 9666.