Saudi Investment Bank (SAIB) — the country’s best-performing bank for 2021 — is proof that size isn’t everything. National Commercial Bank’s supermerger with Samba Financial Group and the completion of SABB’s absorption of Alawwal dominated the headlines of the past 18 months; yet it is SAIB — the country’s ninth largest lender by assets — that has emerged as Saudi’s best performer in the 2021 rankings, scoring top marks for asset quality and return on risk, while ranking in the top three for profitability, liquidity, soundness and leverage.
Notably, SAIB — which stayed at 314th position in The Banker’s main Top 1000 ranking — was the only one of the country’s top 10 lenders to register an improvement in its return on assets and return on equity, prompted by a 13% decline in deposits for the year. The bank signed a banking agency agreement in December with local mobile telecoms provider Virgin Mobile, enabling the latter to provide mobile remittances.
