Al Rajhi to boost corporate lending

RIYADH — Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia’s second-biggest bank by assets, aims to take advantage of opportunities arising from the country’s economic diversification plan to boost its share of corporate lending, its CEO said.

Al Rajhi, Saudi Arabia’s biggest Islamic lender, is one of the dominant players in the kingdom’s consumer banking market, but has only around a seven per cent share of corporate lending. It aims to use the government’s National Transformation Plan (NTP) as a springboard to become one of the kingdom’s top five corporate banks by 2020.

“In 2016, we gained market share [in corporate banking] for the first time in four years,” chief executive Steve Bertamini said. “We believe we can steadily increase our exposure in that sector and will give us a better balance within our overall portfolio. By 2020, we aim to grow our corporate banking focus on the healthcare services, affordable housing, transportation and energy areas,” he said.

The NTP, released last year, is meant to lessen the dependence of the world’s top oil exporter on hydrocarbons following a slide in oil prices.

Bertamini said the bank had no immediate plans to tap the debt market to fund the bank’s expansion until the end of the decade, adding that the lender was very liquid, had a low loan to-deposit ratio and among the highest capital adequacy ratios in the world. —