Value of traded shares in Saudi Arabia by key commercial bank 2017

Alinma Bank held the highest value of traded shares among commercial banks in Saudi Arabia in 2017 at a value of approximately 107 billion Saudi riyals. It was followed by Al Rajhi Bank at about 49 billion Saudi riyals in that year.

 Banks in Saudi Arabia

Alinma Bank is one out of thirteen local licensed banks in Saudi Arabia. It is a Saudi joint stock company that was founded in 2006 with its headquarters in Riyadh. There were three founding shareholders who accounted for a third of the share capital of the bank. The shareholders were the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, the Saudi Arabian Public Pension Agency, and the Saudi Arabian General Organization for Social Insurance. Alinma is an Islamic bank that offers a variety of banking services that follow the shariah Islamic law. Another large bank in Saudi Arabia is the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia (NCB) which had the highest asset value in 2019 of about 135 million U.S. dollars. It holds 20 percent of the market share of the banking assets in Saudi Arabia and had a net profit of eight billion U.S. dollars.

Islamic financial services

Islamic banks follow the Islamic shariah laws and offer alternatives to traditional banking services. Islamic banks prohibit profiting from interest and moneylending. The revenues of the Islamic banks are derived from sharing the profits and losses with the borrowers and investors. The largest bank following the shariah law was the Ayandeh Bank of Iran with an asset value of about 26 billion U.S. dollars. Iran held the most Islamic banking assets in 2019, followed by Saudi Arabia at about 25 percent. Islamic banks offer Islamic banking, Islamic capital instruments, and takaful. Islamic banking holds the largest share of Islamic financial services worldwide.