
Bahrain Bourse ‘Rings the Bell for Gender Equality' for the 7th year in a row
Bahrain Bourse (BHB), a licensed exchange by the Central Bank of Bahrain, participated in the annual United Nations 'Ring the Bell for Gender Equality' initiative in conjunction with the celebration of International Women's Day on March 8, 2025, marking its seventh consecutive year of participation. Bahrain Bourse joined 116 global exchanges and clearing houses to honor the occasion with a week of bell-ringing activities.
The initiative, now in its 11th year with the theme, 'Ring the Bell for ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment,' is a collaborative effort between the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (UN SSE) initiative, the UN Global Compact, UN Women, and the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). It aims to highlight the importance of advancing gender equality and empowering women across the workplace, marketplace, and community.
Bahrain Bourse's participation is consistent with its broader commitment to fostering gender equality and empowering women within the capital markets sector. This year's initiative engaged both male and female employees at BHB, underscoring the importance of gender parity within the organization and across the industry.
Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain Bourse, commented, 'Bahrain Bourse is proud to consistently participate in the United Nations 'Ring the Bell for Gender Equality' initiative, reaffirming its commitment to empowering women across the financial sector. By supporting initiatives like this, we emphasize the critical role of diverse perspectives in driving growth and innovation within the industry while advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 for a more inclusive and sustainable future.'
In line with its sustainability action plan, Bahrain Bourse has consistently introduced and supported initiatives that promote gender diversity. During last year's 'Ring the Bell for Gender Equality' event, BHB launched the Board Mentorship Program in collaboration with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF), aimed at cultivating board-ready candidates through a specialized training program. Similarly, during the 2023 ceremony, BHB announced its endorsement of the UN Women Empowerment Principles (WEP), joining over 7,000 global signatories in a voluntary commitment to advancing gender inclusion in the workplace and beyond.
Notably, in 2019, Bahrain Bourse announced its voluntary commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative to promote sustainable and transparent capital markets as part of its sustainability journey. The SSE initiative focuses on the sustainable disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) facts.
About Bahrain Bourse
Bahrain Bourse is a self-regulated multi-asset marketplace operator established in 1987. Bahrain Bourse aims to offer to its investors, issuers, and intermediaries a comprehensive suite of exchange-related facilities including offering listing, trading, settlement, and depositary services for various financial instruments. We aim to offer our stakeholders with the best investment and trading solutions, and pair it with creative insights and problem solving skills to provide our investors, issuers, and intermediaries with valuable resources to meet their every expectation. Our key growth pillars underpins our way of conducting business and how we interact with our stakeholders: Origination, Innovation, Collaboration, and Pioneering Spirit, and all of them working together is what enables us to offer you with an "Oasis of Investment Opportunities'.
For general inquiries, please contact:
Bahrain Financial Harbor
Harbor Gate, Level 4
P.O. Box 3203
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
info@bahrainbourse.com
www.bahrainbourse.com
For media inquiries, please contact:
Marketing & Business Development
e-Mail: mbsd.info@bahrainbourse.com
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Gulf Today
2 days ago
- Gulf Today
Why ‘King of Cattle' is embracing a plan to save the Amazon
Manuela Andreoni and Ana Mano, Reuters Decades of ranching in the Amazon have earned Roque Quagliato, Brazil's "King of Cattle," great wealth — and some trouble. His family's immense farms were accused of submitting workers to slavery-like conditions in the 1990s and deforesting huge tracts of the rainforest in the early 2000's. But as Brazil's beef industry evolves under pressure from some of the world's greatest export markets, Quagliato, at 85, is now in evidence for something else: he is the face of the push to fix cattle ranching in the Amazon, one of the world's biggest drivers of deforestation. Quagliato's cattle were the first to be tagged with chips in their ears as part of a government program to make millions of cattle in the Amazonian state of Para traceable around the time world leaders arrive there for the United Nations climate summit in November. "What we hope is that, at the end, the international market gives Brazil a better price," he said at the sidelines of a recent cattle auction in Xinguara, one of the beef capitals of Para. Deforesters, he added, are now "a matter for jail." Quagliato has his eyes on exporting pricier and more demanding markets in the United States, Europe and Asia, some of which buy from Brazilian states but not Para at least partly because of concerns around animal health and links to deforestation. "Brazil is hustling to open high-demand markets such as Japan and South Korea, and improving its traceability system is one of the key steps to reaching that goal," said Renan Araujo, a senior market analyst at S&P Global. Para, which has a herd of 26 million, about the size of Australia's, wants to tag all its cattle by 2027 as it seizes on the global spotlight to become a test for a wider policy and a major shift for the world's largest beef exporter. So far, it's off to an inauspicious start. The law, passed in late 2023, requires that ranchers in Para identify their cattle by the end of 2026. But by May ranchers in the state of Para had only tagged some 12,000 cattle. But the buy-in of big ranchers, like Quagliato, has allayed concerns that "there was going to be wholesale rejection" of the policy, said Andy Jarvis, who directs the program Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund, which donated $16.3 million to Para's project. "The success of this initiative needs the farmers and ranchers themselves to be supporting it." The ambitious move, if successful, could be a turning point in the struggle to halt the destruction of the world's largest rainforest. Environmentalists have long argued that improvements in cattle traceability would give law enforcement a powerful tool to choke off ranching in illegally deforested farms from the global supply chains relying on Brazil to feed growing global appetite for beef. While the state's proposal to track cattle individually is no silver bullet against deforestation, it would be a step forward that many thought unimaginable not so long ago. Many ranchers are resisting the program, which they think will take some of them out of business, and few believe the government will meet its goals for this year. But several big-time farmers interviewed by Reuters are throwing weight behind the policy. "There is a cost," Quagliato said. But when ranchers sit down to talk about it, he added, they simply conclude that "we have to do it." The Quagliato family still faces questions over their own impact on the forest and its people. Brazil's federal environmental protection agency said Quagliato paid all his deforestation fines, except for one which he settled, agreeing to regenerate the forest. One of his family members was recently convicted of submitting workers to slave-like labor conditions, though he is appealing. Quagliato declined to comment on these cases. Tagging each cow in Para isn't simply a tool to guarantee animals aren't eating grass where forests were illegally razed. More than anything, it allows animal health agencies to quickly track any sick cattle and their contacts. Data suggests the market rewards traceable herds. The average price of the beef Brazil exports is 8% lower than Uruguay's, which traces cattle individually, according to 2024 data from the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association. That's partly because Uruguay sells much of its beef to the European Union, which has long worked to rid its supply chains of ties to deforestation and requires individual traceability at least 90 days before cattle are slaughtered. Most big ranchers interviewed by Reuters see cattle tagging as an unavoidable path forward, though some fear Para is moving too fast for farmers to adapt and would like the policy to be watered down. Quagliato declined to say how big his herd is or how many of his cattle he had tagged. Local publications have estimated his herd size to be around 150,000 cattle. Ranchers told Reuters they are waiting to comply until the legal deadline comes closer, because they want to make sure it won't be delayed as many observers expect. Some also complained about technical glitches in the system to register cattle, which the government denies. Still, the project has gained support from both the meat packing industry and environmental groups. São Paulo-based JBS, the world's biggest meat packer, has donated 300,000 tags to the program so far. "I'm optimistic," said Marina Guyot, a policy manager at Imaflora, a nonprofit that received a grant from Bezos to help implement the policy. "At the moment, we have political will, which is more than half the way there." 'IT SCARES US' Alaion Lacerda's 50-strong cattle herd at the heart of Para state munch on grass alongside cocoa growing beneath the shade of native trees he planted. He is one of thousands of small producers at the bottom of Brazil's supply chain, providing young calves that bigger ranchers will fatten and sell to slaughterhouses. But, like about half the cattle in Para, his herd is grazing in areas where the rainforest was illegally razed, and he now wonders if the new law will make it harder for him to sell his cattle. "It scares us," he said, sitting on his porch. "We live in a region where almost all producers have a liability." Every day satellites collect visual data on deforestation that the government and meat packers use to mark farms where forests were illegally razed. But tagging will allow officials to geo-locate cattle with a swiping device. The tool could make it harder for farmers to say cattle that were reared in illegally deforested areas came from legal farms, said Ricardo Negrini, a federal prosecutor who monitors links to deforestation in the beef supply. But the program, he added, "still falls short in terms of environmental standards," partly because the tags only geolocate animals at specific moments, allowing ample time for bad-faith producers to move cattle without being noticed. "Whatever you want to control, you can't catch everything," said Raul Protazio Romao, the head of Para's environmental department. "You have to progressively implement control mechanisms that constantly evolve and close gaps." Lincoln Bueno, a big rancher whose family also controls beef exporter Mercurio, said he is not yet tracing his cattle because he fears he may be punished for buying from small suppliers who have illegally deforested plots in their land. "I can only do what I am able to comply with," he said. Convincing ranchers like Bueno and Lacerda to tag their cattle is Para's biggest challenge. It's why the government now allows farmers who have illegally cleared forest on their ranches in the past to clear their records by committing to allowing the forest to grow back. On a recent morning, agricultural analysts from a nonprofit called Solidaridad, visited several small ranchers who they hoped would enter the program. Some were open to the idea that cleaning up their records would have benefits. Others, like Lacerda, were more skeptical. "For me to reforest, isolate the area so I can be legal, I'm going to have to reduce the number of animals," he said. But that, he added, "will affect my income."


Zawya
02-06-2025
- Zawya
Bahrain Bourse, Benefit launch eIPO service on BenefitPay
Bahrain - Benefit, the kingdom's innovator and leading company in fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has signed a strategic co-operation agreement with Bahrain Clear, a fully-owned subsidiary of Bahrain Bourse, to launch eIPO Service (electronic initial public offering service) on BenefitPay. This initiative marks a significant advancement in streamlining investor access to public share offerings on the Bahrain Bourse, said a statement from Benefit. The new feature within the BenefitPay application, expected to be launched in Q4, will provide a fully integrated digital platform that enables users to subscribe to IPOs listed on the Bahrain Bourse. With its intuitive and user-friendly interface, the service will ensure a smooth end-to-end experience - from registration through to payment - while offering detailed and up-to-date information on available public offerings. This enhancement aims to provide retail investors with streamlined access to investment opportunities, improving both accessibility and overall user convenience. Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the CEO of Bahrain Bourse and Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Bahrain Clear, said: "We are pleased to collaborate with Benefit - an instrumental force in advancing Bahrain's digital financial infrastructure - to expand the reach of our eIPO services through the BenefitPay platform." "The eIPO service provides a secure, streamlined process for submitting and managing IPO subscription applications. Integrating this service within BenefitPay represents a strategic evolution in our efforts to enhance investor accessibility, simplify the subscription process, and foster greater public participation in capital market opportunities," he stated. Shaikh Khalifa said that the eIPO platform is set to further complement current service offering by Bahrain Clear, and aims to be aligned with the key objective of Financial Services Sector Development Strategy (2022-2026). Benefit CEO Abdulwahed AlJanahi said: "We are pleased to announce this strategic partnership with Bahrain Bourse, which represents a major step forward in advancing digital financial services across the kingdom. By integrating eIPO functionality into BenefitPay, we are enabling individual investors to subscribe to IPOs more efficiently, securely, and transparently." "This service simplifies the subscription process and encourages broader investor participation in IPOs—solidifying Benefit's role as a key enabler of digital transformation within the Bahrain Bourse and the wider financial ecosystem," he stated. AlJanahi said: "This initiative underscores Benefit's ongoing efforts to support the Kingdom of Bahrain's dynamic digital transformation within the banking and financial services sector. We remain dedicated to continuously enhancing the capabilities of the BenefitPay platform by introducing forward-looking features that promote financial inclusion and encourage a more informed and engaged investment community." "We are confident that this collaboration will play a meaningful role in increasing investor participation and further strengthening the capital market ecosystem," he added. Copyright 2024 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (


Zawya
02-06-2025
- Zawya
Bahrain Bourse announces election of Yousif Abdullah Al Yousif as Chairman of the Board during first meeting held following the board reformation
Bahrain Bourse (BHB), a licensed exchange by the Central Bank of Bahrain, held its first Board Meeting on Sunday, 1st June 2025 and elected Yousif Abdullah Al Yousif as the new Chairman of its Board of Directors, following the issuance of Edict (1) of 2025 regarding the reformation of the Board of Directors of Bahrain Bourse B.S.C., which was issued on 29th April 2025 by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB). During the meeting, Yousif Abdullah Ali Reza was also elected as Vice Chairman, and the Board Committees were formed in accordance with the Corporate Governance Code of Bahrain Bourse. The newly appointed Board of Directors comprises Yousif Abdullah Al Yousif, Yousif Abdullah Ali Reza, Nabeel Saleh Abdulaal, Raed Abdulla Fakhri, Eman Jawad Al Asfoor, Habib Jawad Habib, Fatema Hamad Abul, Abdulla Abdulrazzaq Bukhowa, and Aisha Mohammed Abdulmalik. The newly appointed Board of Directors expressed their sincere appreciation and deep gratitude during the meeting to His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa for the trust and confidence placed in them through their appointment. The Board affirmed its full commitment to supporting His Royal Highness's vision by dedicating all necessary efforts towards advancing the development of Bahrain Bourse and reinforcing its strategic role, as a key driver in the capital market, in supporting the Kingdom's ongoing economic growth. The Board also underscored its intent to enhance the competitiveness of the Bourse, ensuring that it remains an attractive and trusted destination for both local and international investment. Commenting on the occasion, Yousif Abdullah Al Yousif, Chairman of Bahrain Bourse, stated: 'It is a privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility of leading the Board of Bahrain Bourse at such a pivotal time. Together with my fellow Board Members and the Bourse's executive management, we aim to strengthen the Bourse's position as a dynamic and resilient financial market that continues to create opportunities for growth and investment in the Kingdom of Bahrain.' Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain Bourse, added: 'We are pleased to welcome the newly appointed Board of Directors and extend our heartfelt congratulations to the Chairman and Vice Chairman. Their collective and diverse expertise will play an instrumental role in steering Bahrain Bourse's long-term strategy, further enhancing investor's confidence, transparency, and efficiency.' The appointment of the new Board marks an important chapter in Bahrain Bourse's evolution, as it continues to contribute to the national economic agenda and strengthen its position as a vital pillar of Bahrain's capital market sector.