Banks/Banking in Saudi Arabia

Banking in Saudi Arabia reveals its strength based on profitability, high capitalization, strong liquidity and vigilant supervision by the monetary agency of Saudi Arabia. The deposits reached SR916 billion by June 2009 and attracted more deposits owing to the tightening of inter-bank lending states BMG reviews.

Saudi banks showed excellent financial results in the past decade and have proved to be the most profitable banks. They witnessed a decline in 2007 and 2008. these banks showed SR30 billion as net income in December 2008, and this down by 1 % as per 2007 and almost 13% down from 2006 that had SR35 billion.

Saudi Arabia ranks to be the second largest after UAE. Despite, the large size and banking assets, the banking in Saudi Arabia is under-penetrated. However, it stabilized and demonstrated reasonable levels of liquidity by December 2008 showing 88% deposit ratio.

Banks status

The banks in Saudi Arabia are 22, out of which 12 banks are national and joint venture banks and 10 are foreign banks comprising of GCC origins five and international five. The banks in Saudi Arabia include Al-Rajhi Bank, National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial group and their majority stakes are with prominent families and government.

Top Banks and other Banks

Alinma Bank, Al-Rajhi Bank and Bank Albilad are sharjah compliant. Al-Rajhi Bank is the top banks in Saudi Arabia having 436 branches and this is followed by NCN having 279 branches. Al Rajhi Bank has a strong base having a paid up capital SR 13,500,000,000. Banque Saudi Fransi is among the top ten banks in the world and is renowned for its strong financial position and customer base. Saudi American Bank offers remarkable services.

Banks in Saudi Arabia offered reasonable credit growth in the last few years. It showed 18%CAGR in 1999 to 2008, in comparison to 2004 that peaked 34% and 2005 with 36%. In 2009, there was a slowdown and a 1% drop showing the March 2009 end with SR739 billion signifying the reluctance in lending and slowdown in the economy. However, the corporate lending reached the peak in 2008 showing 39% reaching SR556 billion.

The other foreign banks are Emirates Bank, Gulf International Bank, Muscat Bank, National Bank of Bahrain, Deutsche Bank, National Bank of Kuwait, Deutsche Bank, State Bank of India, J.P Morgan Chase and National Bank of Pakistan.