Saudi Awwal Bank and HSBC Forge Strategic Partnership to Drive Financial Innovation in the Kingdom

July 2024

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, July- 24- 2024 – Saudi Awwal Bank (SAB), a leading bank in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with HSBC, one of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations, to strengthen their collaboration to accelerate Financial Innovation. 

This strategic alliance comes as Saudi Arabia aspires to become a hub for Financial innovation through Vision 2030. The signing ceremony took place in London, further solidifying the strong partnership between the two banks. 

Tony Cripps, Managing Director and CEO at SAB said: “Our customers' evolving needs in this rapidly changing, technology-driven era require us to innovate and introduce cutting-edge solutions continuously. As the Kingdom's leading international bank, we are thrilled to leverage HSBC's significant scale, capabilities, and expertise to bring the next generation of banking services to Saudi Arabia.”

Stephen Moss, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Middle East, North Africa and Turkiye and Board Member of SAB, echoed the sentiment: “For over 70 years’, HSBC and SAB have worked together to develop leading banking services in Saudi Arabia. This MoU expands our support of SAB, providing access to HSBC's expertise in leading-edge and innovative solutions for the benefit of customers.”

The MoU aligns with “SAB's” growth strategy, which is focused on accelerating the pace and scale of Innovation. It also affirms “SAB’s” continued commitment to supporting Vision 2030 and the associated key initiatives under the Financial Sector Development Plan to transform the Kingdom into a leading Financial technology and Innovation hub.

Furthermore, the partnership aims to strengthen “SAB's” leading position in the banking sector as the bank continues to cater to its customers' evolving needs. 

“SAB” recently received accreditation as an Innovation organisation by the Global Innovation Institute “GInI” becoming the first bank in the Kingdom to be certified by GInI.  “SAB” was also awarded the Global Banking Innovation Award for Small and Medium Enterprises by the Digital Banker.