MANAMA, BAHRAIN – 19 February 2017: Ithmaar Bank, a Bahrain-based Islamic retail bank, organised sign language training sessions for branch employees to help them better communicate with customers with hearing disabilities and improve their banking experience.
The training sessions were organised in line with the Bank’s long-standing commitments both to playing a real and meaningful role in the community and to continuously improving its customers’ Islamic banking experiences. The sessions, which were organised by the Ithmaar Bank Human Resources department in cooperation with the Bahrain Deaf Society, were delivered by a specialised instructor at the Bank’s headquarters in Seef.
“As a pioneering Islamic retail bank, we take our responsibilities towards our community very seriously,” said Ithmaar Bank Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Abdul Rahim. “As a result, we have always tried to accommodate the requirements of customers with special needs,” he said.
“On the request of the Central Bank of Bahrain, the Kingdom’s banking and financial services regulator, we introduced a range of additional new services in 2016 specifically for customers with special needs,” said Abdul Rahim. “As part of that initiative, we arranged specialised training sessions for branch employees to allow them to communicate using sign language with hearing impaired customers. The training sessions concluded in December,” he said.
“We organised these specialised sign language training sessions to help our employees gaining new skills,” said Ithmaar Bank Head of Human Resources, Enas Rahimi. “This, in turn, contributes both to improving the quality of life for people with special needs in Bahrain and to developing the Kingdom’s banking and finance industry,” she said.
“The training sessions were developed by specialised experts specifically to meet the requirements of hearing disabled bank customers,” said Rahimi. “Ultimately, our goal is to develop qualified employees who can serve hearing impaired customers. This will help maintain customer confidentiality and improve their Islamic banking experience,” she said.