00:00I wanted to start by asking you about what you discovered with your report and what it is that make the banking sector of Saudi Arabia different from banking sectors in other countries.
00:11Thank you, Tom.
00:41And in rural and city-based settings, you have a customer base that still want a significant portion of their interaction with their bank to be digital in some way, shape or form, meaning they want a digital experience, but they also have that relationship requirement with their banker.
01:04It's something that's very important to Saudis.
01:08Having said that, rural customer bases require a slightly different service in that they are less technologically advanced in terms of digital adoption.
01:21They are more reliant on banks and financial literacy isn't quite as high as you will see in the cities.
01:29In the cities, however, you still have people that will say, no, I have a relationship with my bank and I really like that.
01:34And there are certain activities there, for example, wealth management or, you know, even discussing a mortgage that they are not quite yet comfortable in doing purely digitally.
01:46They want a part digital experience, perhaps to kick off a mortgage application digitally, but they still want and value the relationship that they've got with their banker, because I think there's a cultural difference in Saudi compared to other markets, which is business is done with a huge amount of trust rather than in a transactional manner.
