Non-performing bank loans in Saudi Arabia reach $8.8bln

JEDDAH — An economic report revealed that non-performing loans with Saudi banks rose to SR32.9 billion by the end of the second quarter of this year.

The cumulative balance of provisions amounted to SR51.1 billion, bringing the coverage rate for the entire sector to 155.6%.

The banks wrote off SR3 billion of debt during the first six months of this year, according to the financial data on the financial market website Tadawul.

The lending portfolio amounted to SR1.8 trillion at the end of June 2021, with the Saudi National Bank and Al-Rajhi Bank accounting for 48.7% of it. The two banks’ net loans amounted to SR893.5 billion.

In terms of non-performing loans, the Saudi National Bank (after the merger of the National Commercial Bank with Samba) topped the listed banks in the stock exchange at the end of the period ending June 2021, with a value of SR7.5 billion.

The bank issued net loans and it amounted to SR503.2 billion with the balance of provisions amounting to SR11.2 billion and the coverage ratio 149%.

In second place in terms of the value of non-performing loans, came SABB Bank with SR5.4 billion with net loans of SR161.4 billion.

The balance of provisions amounted to SR7.1 billion and the coverage ratio was 131.8%.

Al-Rajhi Bank emerged the most conservative towards provisions for non-performing loans with a coverage ratio of 318%.