Best Islamic bank: The Saudi Investment Bank
In one of the world’s most competitive Islamic banking markets, The Saudi Investment Bank (SAIB) stood out for the depth of its Shariah transformation and its progress in embedding Islamic finance across every part of the institution.
Rather than treating Islamic finance as a narrow product category, SAIB has increasingly integrated Shariah-compliant capabilities across its retail, corporate, treasury and investment activities. More than 75% of the bank’s assets are now Shariah-compliant, while Islamic deposits represent approximately 53% of total deposits – supported by a branch network where 94% operate on a fully Islamic basis. On the asset side, around 66% of SAIB’s total financing portfolio is Shariah-compliant.
The bank’s retail proposition continued to evolve through products including Shariah-compliant personal and home finance, its multi-currency travel card, the Albarakah mudaraba savings account and a travel account that enables customers to earn rewards through an approved Islamic structure. In private banking, SAIB introduced a Shariah-compliant overdraft account and offered tailored murabaha-based structures aligned with individual client requirements.
Corporate banking was another area of strength. SAIB’s Islamic corporate and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing portfolio reached SAR62.6 billion in 2025, equivalent to 62% of total financing, after growing 15% during the year. The bank expanded Shariah-compliant trade finance, cash management, treasury hedging and SME solutions, including Kafalah-backed financing and point-of-sale (POS) financing products.
SAIB also strengthened its role in Islamic capital markets and treasury. Its Shariah-compliant investment portfolio reached SAR12.3 billion, while the bank maintained three outstanding tier-1 sukuk instruments with a combined value of SAR5.3 billion.
Underpinning SAIB’s growth was a strengthened governance framework, supported by a dedicated Shariah department, enhanced audit processes and mandatory staff training. In 2025, 97% of employees completed annual Shariah training, while the bank recorded no major Shariah risks and no purification requirements – reflecting the operational discipline behind its Islamic banking expansion.
Best Islamic fund manager: Jadwa Investment
A combination of sustained Shariah-compliant asset growth, extensive product expansion and targeted portfolio innovation set fund manager Jadwa Investment apart during 2025.
Shariah-compliant assets under management (AUM) increased to SAR101 billion by year-end 2025 from SAR85 billion at the end of 2024, reflecting net inflows and investment performance. Institutional clients accounted for more than 65% of AUM, reflecting a stable and diversified client base across sovereign entities, corporates and high-net-worth (HNW) investors.
Jadwa Investment’s launch of multiple real estate and private equity funds, alongside a regional private credit fund and international advisory strategies, expanded access to alternative and income-generating assets.
In total, the firm launched two private equity funds, 12 real estate funds and six international advisory funds during the review period, significantly expanding its cross-asset offering. Aligned with the sovereign’s Saudi Vision 2030, this diversification directly supports national objectives by channelling capital into sectors such as real estate development and private markets, while giving local investors a wider set of Shariah-compliant portfolio allocation tools beyond listed equities.
In public markets, the firm introduced Developed Markets Managed Volatility Equity and Developed Markets Core Equity mandates in response to global volatility and concentration risk in major indices, enhancing downside protection and portfolio resilience.
By embedding downside protection and style diversification into Shariah-compliant equity allocations, these strategies enhanced risk-adjusted returns and improved resilience for Saudi investors increasing their international exposure.
Best Islamic structured finance house: SNB Capital
SNB Capital stood out in 2025 for deploying highly structured sukuk solutions that advanced how Saudi corporates access private Islamic credit.
One of the firm’s key contributions was the SAR1 billion secured, guaranteed and exchangeable sukuk for ASQ Investment Holding Company – an innovative example of structured private credit in Saudi Arabia. The transaction combined a multi-layered security package, including pledged assets, guarantees and controlled cashflow waterfalls, which significantly reduced investor risk while preserving Shariah compliance. This structure enabled an unrated, family-owned business to raise institutional funding, demonstrating how structured finance can extend market access beyond traditional listed or highly rated issuers.
The innovation lay not only in risk mitigation but also in return design. By incorporating exchangeability into future equity, the sukuk aligned investor and issuer interests, offering fixed-income stability with upside participation. This broadened the appeal to Saudi institutional investors and family offices, supporting deeper participation in domestic private credit markets.
The transaction also delivered a clear balance-sheet impact. It consolidated debt from eight lenders into a single programme, reduced funding fragmentation and introduced a scalable capital structure capable of supporting future growth. The fact that the issuance was fully subscribed by Saudi-based investors highlights the growing sophistication and capacity of the local investor base for structured Shariah-compliant instruments. Beyond this deal, SNB Capital applied structured approaches across liability management and capital optimisation mandates, helping clients reprofile debt and stabilise funding structures and advancing the wider Saudi’s financing landscape.
Best sukuk house: HSBC
HSBC is the best sukuk house in Saudi Arabia, recognised for its market-leading position, structuring expertise and pivotal role in the development of the Kingdom’s debt capital markets.
In 2025, HSBC firmly established itself as the leading sukuk platform in Saudi Arabia, ranking number one across key league tables with a 15.5% share in international sukuk and 22% in local currency issuance. The bank executed more than $32 billion of sukuk from Saudi issuers and guided around 70% of issuers accessing international debt capital markets, reflecting scale and consistency of activity.
HSBC’s leadership is underpinned by its role as a trusted adviser to the Kingdom’s most prominent issuers, including the Ministry of Finance, the Public Investment Fund and Saudi Aramco. It has maintained repeat mandates across sovereign, sovereign-linked and financial institution issuers, while also introducing multiple debut Saudi issuers to the international market, supporting the continued expansion of the domestic credit ecosystem.
A defining strength of HSBC’s franchise is its structuring capability under evolving Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions
(AAOIFI) standards. This was demonstrated through its lead role on Saudi Arabia’s first fully AAOIFI-compliant sukuk programme, which required extensive coordination with regional Islamic banks and the development of a new structure aligned with regulatory requirements. The resulting $5.5 billion transaction achieved record-tight pricing and attracted strong global demand.
Beyond benchmark issuance, HSBC has advanced market innovation, notably through the Kingdom’s first residential mortgage-backed sukuk and major sovereign liability management exercises.
HSBC’s performance reflects a sukuk franchise defined by scale, innovation and deep local expertise, making it a compelling winner as Saudi Arabia’s best sukuk house this year.
Best Islamic local currency deal: Al Rajhi Capital
Cenomi Centres SAR2.05 billion public sukuk
Cenomi Centers issued a SAR2.05 billion public sukuk in November 2025, with Al Rajhi Capital acting as sole lead manager, financial adviser and dealer. This was Cenomi’s first-ever SAR-denominated sukuk, and at six years was their longest sukuk tenor as well, showing diversification away from USD markets and shorter maturity instruments.
The issuance achieved mass retail participation, with individual investors accounting for 67% of take-up. Almost 24,000 subscribers ultimately took advantage of the offering’s relatively low SAR1,000 denomination.
The Al Rajhi Capital app facilitated some SAR402.5 million applications, demonstrating the bank’s innovative use of digital channels, apps, influencers and omnichannel marketing to drive demand.
Best sukuk deal: Mashreq Al Islami
Al Rajhi $1.5 billion sustainable tier-1 sukuk
In January 2025, Mashreq Al Islami acted as joint bookrunner for Al Rajhi Bank’s (ARB) issuance of a $1.5 billion additional tier-1 (AT1) sustainable sukuk, which was the largest-ever AT1 sukuk in size.
The purpose of the issuance was for ARB to finance and refinance, in whole or in part, eligible sustainable projects as set out in ARB’s sustainable finance framework, as well as to improve the bank’s tier-1 capital position.
More than 150 global investors invested in the sukuk, which was 2.7x oversubscribed. The sukuk utilised a mudaraba structure, following two 2024 sukuk issuances that used wakala and wakala/mudaraba structures, respectively.
