WASHINGTON, 23 June 2005 — The World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corp., said on Tuesday it would work with Saudi British Bank to develop housing finance markets and promote home ownership in the Kingdom.
The IFC said it will invest about $50 million, or SR187.5 million, to boost Saudi British Bank’s Islamic home financing portfolio and, by extension, seek to deepen Saudi Arabia’s primary mortgage market.
“Our facility provides an important stimulus for the housing finance market in Saudi Arabia and for the whole region,” Sami Haddad, IFC’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement. “Without increasing the availability of long-term funding for housing finance, the lower-income segments of the market will continue to be underserved and denied the chance at home ownership,” Haddad said.
Saudi British Bank is 40 percent owned by British-based HSBC Holdings Plc, and Saudi nationals own the remainder of its shares.
Geoff Calvert, managing director of Saudi British Bank, said the IFC deal was likely to have a wide impact. “This transaction supports our strategy of providing more funding to Saudi citizens to purchase or build their home, and it will have a very positive impact on the national home financing market,” Calvert said.
