“The economy in Saudi Arabia is quite robust. Many initiatives have taken place and are ongoing to diversify away from the oil sector and to build up the non-oil component of the economy,” says Dr. Boutros Klink, CEO of Standard Chartered.
“Standard Chartered is very keen to assist in developing the secondary trading market in bonds and sukuks in the Kingdom,” argues Dr. Boutros Klink, CEO of Standard Chartered.
“There are five main drivers that make it a particularly strong economy: firstly, you have substantial capital investments made by both the government and private companies. Secondly, there is the strong non-oil GDP growth,” argues Dr. Bernd van Linder, Managing Director of Saudi Hollandi Bank.
“As Saudi Hollandi, we have decided that our main competitive advantage is customer service. We have a strong focus on the customer. We were the first bank in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, operating as a bank for the past 88 years,” notes Dr. Bernd van Linder, Managing Director of Saudi Hollandi Bank.
“The Saudi economy is among the best performing in the world, and I believe the banking sector is also among the best in the world. Saudi banks are typically doing very well, are very strong, very stable, very profitable,” says Dr. Bernd van Linder, Managing Director of Saudi Hollandi Bank.
“I think the outlook is very positive. There is a substantial amount of competition between the twelve domestic banks. Despite intense competition, the outlook for the banking sector is optimistic, mainly due to strong economy,” explains Dr. Bernd van Linder, Managing Director of Saudi Hollandi Bank.
“For home finance, the banks and the dedicated mortgage companies are already extremely active in the market. The new mortgage law is very strong and supportive,” explains Dr. Bernd van Linder, Managing Director of Saudi Hollandi Bank.
“Saudi Arabia, being a very young and very technology-savvy society, is an ideal ground for Internet banking. What we have seen is very fast-growing usage of our internet banking channels, and even faster growth of our mobile applications,” explains Dr. Bernd van Linder, Managing Director of Saudi Hollandi Bank.
“The banking sector mirrors the economy, so the outlook is extremely bullish,” claims Dr. Bernd van Linder, Managing Director of Saudi Hollandi Bank.
“All Saudi banks are Basel III compliant, and have been so for many months already of the official deadline. We were probably the first country in the world to have all of its banks Basel III compliant,” says Dr. Bernd van Linder, Managing Director of Saudi Hollandi Bank.
