(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.
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. It is interesting to note that the current Prime Minister of Pakistan,
Shaukat Aziz was the Managing Director of the bank in the 90's.
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 Citibank decided to pull out of Saudi Arabia and sell its 19% stake in the Saudi joint venture to the General Organization for Social Insurance. Officially, this was done due to the anticipated relaxation of laws governing foreign banks' operation in the Kingdom. Some speculate, however, 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.
http://www.ecoworld-mag.com/Detail.asp?InNewsItemID=132853
