The Bank of Maldives is currently at its strongest position, says Managing Director and CEO Tim Sawyer.
Speaking to BML shareholders at the 39th Annual General Meeting on Sunday, the bank’s CEO and MD stated that it is currently in its strongest position, it “has ever been in”.
He went on to shed light on the successful trajectory of the country’s national bank over the past three years, during a turbulent time across the entire globe.
According to Sawyer, the bank saw a record-breaking performance in the past year.
We survived Covid. We were able to continue lending, continue providing key services and continue to provide substantial debt relief to keep the country going. When the Maldives was at its most troubled, BML stood firm and ensured the economic survival of the country.”Tim Sawyer, BML’s MD and CEO.
Stating that BML showed a “strong” financial performance over the last year, Sawyer noted that in spite of price reductions on key lending products, profits increased with a significant rise of over 470 percent to MVR 1.9 billion after tax.
This, he said means that the government as BML’s biggest shareholder, benefits with more than MVR 543 million in tax and MVR 131 million as dividends.
Sawyer went on to state that they now have a set of new strategic pillars including financial stability, operational excellence and customer experience, as well as goals that the bank has committed to achieve in the next three years.
Noting that attention to customer service is not new, Sawyer said that improving customer service has been a key priority with the expansion of BML’s nationwide footprint, digitization of their back-end-operations and introduction of new services such as the wallet feature on the BML App, even in the face of Covid-19.
Further, the BML MD and CEO went on to reveal that they have increased resources to expand their capacity and ensure business continuity, stressing that “much more” remains to be done, however, he noted that customer surveys implicate that BML is starting to succeed
Acknowledging BML’s team, Sawyer recognized their “growing” talent, highlighting that he has been pleased to see new Maldivians coming onto the executive management team over the last three years, be it through promotion or through recruitment.
He went on to reveal that BML is currently operating with 99 percent of Maldivians stating that the next generation of leaders is starting to make its mark too, with which it will remain Maldivian-led in the future.
Sawyer noted that this is something to take pride in.
