RIYADH, 11 July — The Saudi British Bank has unveiled a scheme under which both Saudis and expatriates will be eligible for personal loans ranging from SR100,000 to SR750,000 repayable in 36 and 48 monthly installments respectively.
It was also announced that there was a ten percent growth in money supply in the Kingdom, equivalent to $10 billion, following the events of Sept. 11. The extent of growth in the liquidity does not provide any hard evidence that Saudi investors have been repatriating their funds from abroad on a large scale.
This was disclosed to Arab News by David Hodgkinson, managing director of the Saudi British Bank, in an interview during which he spelled out the bank’s new corporate strategy of “putting the customer first.”
Referring to the personal loan scheme, Hodgkinson said there is no guarantor required but the expatriate has to be a confirmed employee earning a monthly basic salary of at least SR8,000. For Saudis, the maximum loan amount is SR750,000 repayable in monthly installments of 12 to 84 months. To qualify for the loan, he should be drawing a monthly basic salary of SR3,000. His service tenure with his current employer should be one year.
Hodgkinson said response to the personal loans scheme has been highly encouraging. “It is a rapidly growing market. Given the size of our portfolio, we have net repayments worth SR100 million a month.” The bank has also launched, last year, the home purchase finance under its Islamic finance scheme. Since banks are not allowed to hold property, they have entered into a partnership with the saudi Real Estate Co. (Al Akaria). “They will hold t property on our behalf and also participate in funding to an extent.”
The bank could provide to the joint borrower loan upto SR1.5 million with a 16-year maturity period.
