Samba Financial Group

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Samba Financial Group

Type	Public
Founded	1980
Headquarters	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Key people	Dr. Soliman Al-Solaim, Chairman Eisa M. Al-Eisa Managing Director and CEO
Industry	Finance
Products	Financial Services
Revenue	N/A
Employees	N/A
Slogan	World Class Banking
Website	www.samba.com

Samba Financial Group (formerly known as The Saudi American Bank) is a large banking firm in Saudi Arabia formed by the takeover of Citibank branches in Saudi Arabia by Royal Decree on February,12,1980.

[edit] History

Samba or The Saudi American Bank as it was once known was established on February 12 1980 with the takeover of all Citibank branches in Jeddah and Riyadh in accordance to a national program begun in the mid 1970's that forced all foreign banks to sell majority equity interests to Saudi nationals. Citigroup entered a Technical Management Agreement under which it agreed to manage the new bank.

[edit] Change of Name

Samba was always the acronym for the Saudi American Bank but the name was changed to Samba Financial Group permanently in 2003 and all references to Saudi American Bank were removed. This name change was done after that Citibank decided to pull out from its Saudi operation and it sold its 19% stake in the Saudi joint venture to the General Organization for Social Insurance. Some speculate that this was due to rising anti-American sentiment in Saudi Arabia. This has become more evident after the change of the Saudi British Bank name as well to SABB in 2006. Nevertheless SABB is still an HSBC partnership and they have changed their artwork and colors from Green and White to the HSBC logo.