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  • HC-A HC-A Introduction

    • HC-A.1 HC-A.1 Executive Summary

      • Purpose

        • HC-A.1.1

          The purpose of this Module is to:

          (a) Explicitly reinforce the collective oversight and risk governance responsibilities of the board;
          (b) Emphasise key components of risk governance such as risk culture, risk appetite and their relationship to a licensee’s risk capacity;
          (c) Delineate the specific roles of the board, board committees, senior management, chief financial officer, internal auditor, chief risk officer and head of compliance; and
          (d) Strengthen licensees’ overall checks and balances.
          Added: April 2023

        • HC-A.1.2

          All references in this Module to ‘he’ or ‘his’ shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as also being references to ‘she’ and ‘her’.

          Added: April 2023

      • Legal Basis

        • HC-A.1.3

          This Module contains the CBB’s Directive (as amended from time to time) relating to high-level controls and is issued under the powers available to the CBB under Article 38 of the Central Bank of Bahrain and Financial Institutions Law 2006 (‛CBB Law’). The Directive in this Module is applicable to Islamic bank licensees (including their approved persons).

          Added: April 2023

        • HC-A.1.4

          All Rulebook content that is categorized as a rule must be complied with by those to whom the content is addressed. Other parts of this Module are guidance paragraphs which are considered best market practices and licensees are encouraged to implement the same.

          Added: April 2023

      • Effective Date

        • HC-A.1.5

          The new requirements in this amended Module are effective from 1st October 2023 on which date the existing Module HC will become redundant, and any exemptions allowed under the existing Module will be subject to grandfathering requirements unless the relevant requirement has undergone change within this amended Module.

          Added: April 2023

    • HC-A.2 HC-A.2 Module History

      • HC-A.2.1

        This Module was first issued in June 2004 by the BMA and updated in October 2007 to reflect the switch to the CBB. Following the issuance of the Corporate Governance Code by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in March 2010, the Module was amended in October 2010 to be in line with the new Corporate Governance Code and to include previous requirements that were in place in the originally issued Module HC. Any material changes that have subsequently been made to this Module are annotated with the calendar quarter date in which the change was made: Chapter UG-3 provides further details on Rulebook maintenance and version control.

        Added: April 2023

      • HC-A.2.2

        A list of recent changes made to this Module is detailed in the table below:

        Module Ref.Change DateDescription of Changes
        Full Module HC04/2023New restructured HC Module supersedes the previous version. The new Module is consistent with Corporate Governance Principles for banks Paper issued in July 2015 by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
        Full Module HC01/2024Restructured Module HC containing Part 1 applicable to Bahraini Islamic bank licensees and Part 2 applicable to Branches of foreign banks.