BrazilTadawul-listed banks continue their solid performance (in 5 charts)
Tadawul-listed banks have continued their solid performance over the past quarter, according to KPMG Saudi Arabia’s latest Banking Pulse report.
The report by the professional services firm found that total banking sector assets now are 6% up on the 2020 end year baseline, with net income (net profit after zakat and tax) up nearly 12% in the nine-month period year-on-year.
“The Kingdom’s banking sector continued to lead the charge towards recovery in the first nine months of FY 2021,” said Khalil Ibrahim Al Sedais, Office Managing Partner of KPMG in Riyadh. He added that the performance demonstrates the sector’s resilience to the pandemic “despite the inevitable adverse effects of Covid-19”, and to the “successful initiatives” taken by the government, regulators and banks.
One key growth driver of the asset hike is the strong growth seen in mortgage finance, a result of the booming Saudi housing market. According to a study by Knight Frank released last month, the residential market in Saudi Arabia is expanding at a rapid rate, lifted by the government’s push to make home ownership more affordable (part of the National Transformational Plan), with price level acceleration currently at its highest point in the past five years.
Turning to banks to finance their home purchases, strong mortgage finance growth lifted total assets of Tadawul-listed banks to SAR 2,946 billion. The total loan base grew by 11%.
Meanwhile, the total lending exposure of Saudi banks to the private sector ended the quarter at SAR 1,883 billion, edging closer to the SAR 2 trillion mark. On a positive note for the corporate lending portfolio, Al Sedais pointed at the fact that there hasn’t been a single significant lending default in the quarter, while expected credit losses declined further to SAR 9.7 billion for the first three quarters of the year.
Among other key findings of KPMG’s report: banks have been upping their digitisation agenda, rationalising their branch networks (which led to a further decline in the number of bank branches across Saudi Arabia) and giving more attention to environment, social and governance (ESG) topics.
On the latter development, Ovais Shahab, Head of Financial Services at KPMG in Saudi Arabia, said: “CEOs in the Kingdom are facing increased demands from stakeholders including investors, regulators and customers for enhanced reporting and transparency on ESG issues. Growing exposure to global financial markets and heightened attention from ratings agencies have invigorated Saudi banks on their ESG priorities.”
A round-up of the performance of Tadawul-listed banks in five charts:
The net income of the ten banks assessed:
The development of total assets and total loan book:
Bank performance in terms of Return on Equity and Return on Assets:
The development of the Loan to Deposit ratio:
The development of the Capital adequacy ratio:
With over 1,400 employees working from offices in Riyadh, Jeddah and Khobar, KPMG is one of the largest accounting and consulting firms in Saudi Arabia. The global group has been active in the Kingdom since 1992.
