It was indeed amusing to read a statement by the director of the labor office in Madinah saying that he planned to lodge an official complaint against local banks for refusing to employ Saudi youths during the summer for as little as SR1,000 a month.
Local banks practice an excessive form of selfishness and are only concerned with protecting their interests.
They are afraid their interests would be at risk if they agree to pay SR1,000 to train a young Saudi for a future job. In behaving like this, these banks show themselves to be no better than Dracula sucking a victim’s blood. While enjoying every conceivable privilege and facility, the banks are not returning the favor.
They manipulate fatwas (religious edicts) banning interest rates, knowing people will flock to deposit billions of riyals in saving accounts without getting anything in return, not even a minimum of decent service. The banks’ credit policy earns them millions of riyals from the monthly salaries and savings of people who are plunged into debt for years of their lives.
Saudis now pay one-third of their monthly wage to repay these debts. The loans are given at interest rates that are considered among the highest in the world and that have been fixed for decades, despite the fact that interest rates fluctuate everywhere else in the world. Each quarter these banks announce huge tax-free net profits. This is not the case in other countries of the world where profits are taxed. Yet the banks refuse to take on young Saudis for training during the summer. We are not talking here about firms making small profits but huge financial establishments dealing in billions of riyals and refusing to act with any social responsibility.
Our banks turn their backs on social and charitable work, drain peoples’ money and drag their feet on Saudization. The problem comes from the absence of laws and regulations forcing the banks to honor their responsibilities. There are neither legal departments nor written legislation that the director of the Madinah labor office could consult.
The documents in his office relating to the subject cannot be said to have any use because they never come out of the drawers where they are stored. If there is any punishment, it has to be given to bank managers who seem only concerned with serving their banks at the expense of everybody and everything else.
Arab News From the Local Press 8 August 2003
