Financial Services

The effect of recently introduced mortgage legislation has become one of the more salient industry concerns in 2015. First promulgated in March 2013, many market observers thought the law a long overdue formalisation of a rapidly growing segment. Real estate lending had been steadily rising as a percentage of the consumer credit total for some...

According to a statistical bulletin released by the Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority (SAMA) in early 2015, the amount of money remitted by expatriates in 2014 reached a record high. In total, SR153.3bn ($40.9bn) was transferred to the home countries of the nation’s foreign labour force, representing a rise of 3.6% over the previous year. Data...

The corporate governance regimes of Saudi Arabia’s family-owned businesses (FOBs) are a salient talking point in financial circles, for obvious reasons. Estimates as to their contribution to GDP vary, but a 2012 study by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry claimed that the Kingdom’s FOBs in that year accounted for around SR350bn ($93...

Thanks to its large population, a renowned hydrocarbons industry and an increasingly diverse non-oil sector, Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s wealthiest nations and a member of the G20 group of major economies. IMF data shows its GDP to be larger than that of advanced economies such as Sweden, Norway and Austria, as well as those of Middle...

Given the size and breadth of the Saudi Arabian economy it is at first glance surprising that the government continues to play the leading role in supporting local start-ups and entrepreneurs. Where other countries in MENA, such as Egypt and Jordan, have seen the private sector address the segment through angel and seed investment operations,...