These developments targeting wealthy Saudi women have proven very beneficial in attracting extra capital. However, large-scale banks and investment firms abroad have also awoken to a new way of bringing in even more wealth by advertising to the Kingdom’s high net worth women.

The latest products that are being advertised to Saudi women include private banking, asset management and corporate services portfolios. The downside, however, for most of these women, despite sitting on as much as over $100 million, is that many do not know the differences between investing in mutual funds, money markets or other financial instruments.

For this reason, international banks and investment firms have taken notice and have been touring the Kingdom and other GCC countries in search of ways to fill market gaps, one of which is a need for financial and investment companies to offer seminars and training about their products and how they work. The firms then advertise to these same women the benefits of investing major portions of their wealth in their products, either within a branch of their firm inside Saudi Arabia or by convincing them to invest in an offshore account.

The latest group in the Kingdom seeking partnerships and clientele is the Luxembourg for Business and Luxembourg for Finance (LFF) trade delegation, which held seminars in Riyadh and Jeddah in May. Members of the group spoke about ways they could learn more about Islamic finance and create partnerships with Saudi financial firms while offering local investors the chance to do business with Luxembourg.

Visiting with the LFF team was the Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME), which said that they are a perfect example of how catering to high net worth investors and corporations with Shariah compliant products can be beneficial for both European and Middle Eastern investors and institutions.

“We want to let Middle Eastern customers see that we can be a beneficial presence to them even though we are located in London,” said Nigel Denison, head of Asset Management at BLME.

He explained that since the lifestyle of most Saudis and Arabs in the region involves remaining at home nine months of the year while also purchasing summer homes in Europe and wanting to have bank accounts abroad, BLME can be a perfect link in helping customers find the products they need while also maintaining religious duties of using only Shariah-complaint products.

Previous and current global financial concerns are another reason why targeting Saudi women is a necessity for so many global financial institutions. Many global firms remember the $1.5 trillion in Arab capital that was abruptly withdrawn from US banks following Sept. 11 attacks and reinvested in mainly European and Middle Eastern investment firms at home due to a lack of trust and political instability.

Now that the financial turmoil has hit Europe due to Greece’s financial woes, Saudis and other investors in the GCC are again wary of the danger of losing millions; this has got many European firms looking to set up shop in the region or do their best to keep the confidence of Middle Eastern investors, the easiest clientele of which are Saudi women.

Estimates have shown that Saudi women in 2008 owned one-third of the brokerage accounts and 40 percent of family-run businesses as silent partners. Between 2007 and 2008 Saudi women managed to strengthen their financial position by increasing assets from $110 billion to $160 billion, a 68 percent increase in 12 months. Further statistics from the same year also reported that Gulf women were worth $246 million — this is expected to increase to $385 million by 2011.

Nonetheless, with so much outside competition coming into the Kingdom and vying for a slice of the business wealthy Saudi women have, local banks as well as foreign banks, which have been in the Kingdom for decades, have been forced to find and focus on new strategies to keep their piece of the pie. Saudi Hollandi Bank, the first operation bank in Saudi Arabia, recently launched a new campaign lasting through the end of August with the slogan “Behind Every Great Woman, A Bank that Puts her First.”

The bank has been providing training for its female staff to help them more effectively meet customer needs. “There’s no doubt that Saudi women are becoming more important to the Kingdom’s economy. Many of our female customers are executives who are busy but they naturally want the best possible advice to maximize their returns,” said Faten Abalkhail, head of ladies banking at Saudi Hollandi Bank.

“We’ve been increasingly aware that our female customers want services and products to fit their lifestyles,” she said. Women are taking on more roles and more responsibility, and we have to innovate for them to ensure that their bank experience meets and exceeds their expectations,” she added.

Among the local Saudi banks, the National Commercial Bank (NCB) also knows the importance of the role of Saudi women to their business. “When it comes to ladies banking, in comparison to standard banking, marketing strategies differ depending on the products and services being provided,” said Ayman Al-Tayyar, head of Branch Network Division at NCB.

“Working ladies versus housewives, purchasing power and the roles that ladies play in their industry effects how and what is communicated to them,” he said, adding that communication methods and channels are different as well as market and culture, which play roles in defining needs and demands in the market.

NCB currently has 46 ladies branches and offices across the Kingdom with the number expected to increase over the next few months. Al-Tayyar also said that the market is open to different marketing strategies for both genders but agreed that Saudi women, as a clientele, cannot be ignored.

“Saudi Ladies need especially more tailored products in areas like investment and credit cards. This of course is due to changes in the market and having more women in the workforce affects the needs and demands drastically,” he continued.

Such changes in the needs and demands of Saudi women, according to Al-Tayyar, also include privacy and comfort. “Those factors are multiplied when taking the culture of the Kingdom into perspective and the limitations and what the population is accustomed to. Customers prefer this segregation when it comes to banking,” he said.