What next for Saudi banks?

Private banking, project finance and mortgages are replacing brokerage and payroll lending as the main drivers of Saudi Arabian banks’ revenue growth. That is the view of Faisal Al Sakkaf, the CFO of the country’s largest financial institution, National Commercial Bank in Jeddah.

Sophisticates at the gate The mortgage sector in Saudi Arabia contributes only a low-single digit percentage to the country’s GDP. Real estate finance grew by almost 7% in the first half of 2007, in part thanks to an increase in home loans. But banks are still awaiting what they hope is an imminent mortgage law to tighten the regulatory and legal framework for home finance before securitizations of existing and future pools of loans can become a possibility.

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