The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) announced that the State Bank of India branch in Jeddah submitted a request to stop practicing banking business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to the change in the parent bank's strategic plans to redeploy its branches around the world.

According to what was stated in Article (11) of the Banking Control Law issued by Royal Decree No. (M / 5) dated 02/22/1386 AH, SAMA decided to grant the bank the approval to stop practicing banking business after fulfilling the statutory requirements and taking into account the rights of customers and depositors. SAMA also calls on the bank's customers and depositors to exercise their rights guaranteed by the system and the regulations to submit a complaint to the Clients Protection Department at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority in the event of any violation of their right by calling directly the toll-free number 8001256666 or online communication through SAMA's official website or Visit the customer service at SAMA's headquarter.

                The branch is expected to exit the Saudi market at the end of the current year 2017 AD. It should be noted that the State Bank of India branch is one of the branches of foreign banks operating in the Kingdom and had previously obtained a license to conduct banking business in the Kingdom on 10/03/2005.

                In this context, the number of foreign bank branches licensed in the Kingdom to date reached 14 branches, the last of which was Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank of Japan, which was licensed in December 2016. In May the Cabinet issued a decision to license Gulf International Bank in The Kingdom that is affiliated with Gulf International Bank in Bahrain. As for the expansion of foreign bank branches in the Kingdom, the Emirates NBD branch has recently been authorized to open 3 additional branches in the Kingdom, and an application for another bank to expand in the Kingdom is currently being studied.