euromoney Saudi Arabia best bank

Alrajhi bank is emerging from the pandemic in fine shape. The Kingdom’s financial leader posted net profit of SR14.75 billion ($3.93 billion) in 2021, up 39.2% year on year. Return on average shareholders’ equity came in at a very healthy 23.9% with return on average assets at 2.7%. Net financing and investment income came in at SR20.4 billion, up 21% over the previous year, with total assets jumping 33% to SR624 billion.

Alrajhi bank began the new year well. It posted a 24% year-on-year rise in net profit in the first three months, to SR4.13 billion, with assets up 28.4%, deposits rising 20.6% and operating income rising 17% from the same period a year ago.

The bank has also received approval from shareholders to increase its capital stock by 60% to $10.66 billion and to distribute a cash dividend of SR1.4 per share for the full year, pushing its share price to an all-time high. And in January 2022, the lender completed the sale of SR6.5 billion-worth of perpetual tier-1 sukuk bonds via a private placement.

The bank saw the number of digital customers jump sharply, to 14 million at the end of 2021, against 7.9 million a year earlier, with 96% of new-to-bank customers onboarded fully digitally. The Riyadh-based lender also introduced a raft of new or augmented digital services during the awards period, including digital promissory notes, online mortgage applications, QR-code automation, and end-to-end opening of current accounts for retail and small and medium-sized enterprise customers.

The bank unveiled a new e-business platform for startups and business customers, an AI-powered engine that processes unstructured data, and a digital service that allows retail and corporate clients to book an in-branch appointment via their desktop or mobile phone.