Thursday, 16 July, 2026
Good evening. It is a pleasure to be among our young bankers.
I will leave the story of ABA’s incorporation and early development to my friend of fifty years, Faisal Kudsi. I’ll address my role in the Arab Banker Magazine.
I was Arab Banker’s first editor from 1980 to 1986. It was a black and white 24-page bimonthly. Its mission was to present the Arab banker as a competent professional and the ABA as the stamp of his/her impeccable character.
We featured interviews with ministers of finance and oil, governors of central banks, leading bankers, and original analytical articles by economic and finance experts.
Our magazine became a part of the London media on Middle East finance and a recruiter for new members and contributors to the Association.
To maintain neutrality, Arab Banker did not have an editorial page, except once. In Sept/Oct 1984, an editorial raised the alarm on the breakdown of ethical conduct by some Arab bankers.
Islamic banking: The Alrajhi years
Meanwhile, the highlight of my 30-year career were the 7 years in the 1980s helping the formidable Sulaiman al-Abdulaziz Alrajhi create the first Saudi Islamic bank, the Alrajhi Bank.
Producing a Murabaha contract under English Law with the consequent tax implications in different jurisdictions was the most complicated intellectual challenge.
We granted $6 billion in trade facilities to, among others, 30 of the largest 50 European companies and Japan’s biggest trading houses. Outstandings exceeded £3 billion. Many hundreds of transactions later without a penny lost. Today, Alrajhi Bank is the largest Islamic Bank in the world.
For more on Alrajhi Bank, the Oral History section of ABA’s Website informs of the Midwife to the Birth of Islamic Banking in Saudi Arabia.
Arab National Bank
In 1988, I returned to conventional banking at Arab Bank in London and later at Arab National Bank in Riyadh, its 40% subsidiary.
When I arrived to ANB on March 5, 1991, on the first BA flight after the Gulf War, the Bank had 2,500 employees, 300,000 customers, 110 un-networked branches, no ATMs, no credit/debit cards, zero personal computers, and weeks late in reports to SAMA.
My plan included a new organization chart, re-engineering of work methods, and state of the art automation, the distributed processing architecture.
Arab Bank technologists in Amman were vociferous opponents of my plan. Many Head Office managers in Riyadh put their rivalries aside and joined my deputy to derail the plan. Six months later, the deputy left. He was not replaced.
Had it not been for ANB’s towering Chairman, Rashed al-Abdurrahman al-Rashed, this chapter could not have been written. Sheikh Rashed was a lion of a man.
Four years later, 2000 PCs, 125 branches, 225 ATMs, 2,000 point-of-sale terminals were networked, and SAMA received its reports promptly. A brilliant young Saudi mathematician colleague, Mohammad al-Mansour, was my hero.
When Mohammad and I introduced Sheikh Hamad el-Sayyari, SAMA’s Governor, to our Home Banking Smart Phone, the Governor kept the device in his elegant office to show guests.
The Wall Street Journal Europe, wrote on September 22, 1995:
Probably the most dramatic example of automation can be found at Arab National Bank, which over the past four years has completely transformed its operations to install what is now one of the largest personal-computer-based client/server core banking systems in the world.
After three more years, staff numbers dropped from 2,500 to 1,500, 50% were new hires. SAMA’s Saudization ratio of 65% was met. Return on equity rose from 14.7% to 17.1%, despite the heavy cost of re-organization.
The achievement dearest to my heart, however, was helping the Saudi Benevolent Association for Disabled Children. Starting in 1994, at no cost to customers, every ANB ATM transaction donated one Riyal to the Association. By the time I left at the end of 1997, SR12 million were contributed.
With Sheikh Rashed’s passing, I returned to London on January 1, 1998.
For more on Arab National Bank, please see: Digitizing Arab National Bank.
School of Oriental and African Studies
I became a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Six years later, I received an M.A. for my thesis: The 1916 Revolt of Sharif Hussein bin Ali Against the Ottoman Empire, and a Ph.D. for Experiments in Achieving Water and Food Self-Sufficiency in Saudi Arabia and Syria under the supervision of the world-famous geographer, the late Professor Tony Allan.
My work on water politics concluded that you could bring money and water and make a desert bloom, until the money or the water runs out. Said differently: Camels don’t fly, deserts don’t bloom.
In conclusion
If I have made a difference, it’s because, to quote Sir Isaac Newton, I stood on the shoulders of giants like Sulaiman Alrajhi, Rashid al-Rashid, Mohammad al-Mansour, and Tony Allan.
I wish you all success and joy in your endeavours.