The year 2005 was a remarkable one for Bank AlJazira. Although not the largest bank in Saudi Arabia by a long shot — it is No. 10 on the list of Top 10 banks with revenue last year of SR1.3 billion compared to the SR8 billion earned by the No. 1 Al-Rajhi Bank — it performed better than all the others in terms of growth: 120 percent. Revenue more than doubled, pushing it up from 66th position the previous year to 40th for 2005. (Al-Rajhi’s growth was 43 percent; the second strongest bank in terms of revenue, NCB, saw growth of 25 percent.) AlJazira CEO Mishari Al-Mishari attributes the success to the bank’s ability to provide what clients want.
“For the past five years all areas of the bank have grown. However, the most significant one is retail banking, although corporate banking is growing as well and there are plans to expand its growth even further,” he told Arab News. “I think the main difference (between AlJazira and other banks) is understanding and answering the client’s financial needs. Innovation in developing products and services that are Shariah-compliant has also played an important role.
“Success does not come by coincidence. We have developed a formula and it has worked. First we succeeded in developing a strategy in offering innovative Shariah-compliant products and services. Then we concentrated efforts on developing our infrastructure and we expanded our branches network. In parallel we have developed our main assets, our employees. We increased our Saudization to 87 percent by the end of September 2006. We have developed a management training program called “Banker To Be.” Products such as Tadawul.com, the local share trading via Internet, has been a product that our clients loved for its efficiency and simplicity. Moreover, our employees have performed to world-class levels. Therefore, as you can see we have succeeded in many areas which lead to this performance.”
AlJazira is currently looking at Shariah-compliant products for real estate financing, trade financing and export financing.