00:00How significant do you think the banking sector is as far as the Saudi economy is concerned?
00:05Pretty central, isn't it?
00:08Of course, Tom. I mean, the banking sector is responsible for the development of any economic powerhouse.
00:16You know, the availability of capital, the flow of capital.
00:20I mean, it's the sector that will enable every one of the economic development initiatives underway.
00:26And Saudi Arabia is certainly no exception.
00:30You know, as of last year, the total bank credit was sitting around north of three trillion Saudi real
00:40and consistently growing at a rate of around 27 percent year on year.
00:46What we're seeing as well as and I think this is the really interesting aspect of the financial sector in Saudi Arabia.
00:54You have a nation which is rich with resources that is relatively developed,
01:01that is on a very, very ambitious mission to develop a broad range of sectors,
01:10to see a number of mega, giga projects through to completion.
01:15You've got the perfect mix.
01:18It's the perfect storm for capital markets to play an excellent role.
01:22We're seeing the fintech sector develop at record pace, for example.
01:27I mean, recently, the Saudi fintech lender secured a $690 million facility from JP Morgan to lend to SMEs.
01:37Earlier on, you know, I mentioned that half of SMEs are now owned by women in Saudi Arabia, nearly half full SMEs.
01:45There's an increase in appetite for starting SMEs.
01:55Nearly three and four, sorry, nearly two and four Saudi adults have indicated that they would consider starting a business in the next four years.
02:04So you have this broad, broad base of development and ambition.
02:10People are coming, people are coming to the markets to build businesses.
02:15We are seeing infrastructure develop.
02:17We are seeing expats come to the region.
02:19We are seeing foreign investors come into the region.
02:22And the banking sector, not only the current sector that's already in place,
02:27the institutions that are doing an incredible job and have been around for decades,
02:31but we are seeing now foreign banks, major Wall Street names, set up their regional headquarters in region.
02:37So when you aggregate all of these changes and these developments that you do and you consider that all of that financial power will be flowing through such a broad base of economic and industrial development and even more so societal development and uprising.
02:56That, I think, that's the true reflection of how powerful the banking sector is, because, of course, the capital markets or the financial services enterprises,
03:07they are a major contributor to GDP and commercial activity.
03:11But combining that with the broad reaching development that's taking place across the nation,
03:18I think that's what we need to look at to understand the significance.
