The Bank continued its successful journey to be number one in revenues, number one in profit, the best in customer service, the best digital bank, and the employer of choice.

The global Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 provided a unique challenge for the Bank, the Kingdom, and the world. Saudi Government Authorities put forth a comprehensive and proactive set of measures to address the arising uncertainties. This included several Saudi Central Bank support programs and initiatives such as liquidity support for the Banking sector and the MSME focused Private Sector Financing Support Program. Similarly, NCB has successfully navigated 2020, responding decisively to maintain seamless operations and delivery of services, while also preserving the health and safety of customers, employees and the wider community.

Against this challenging backdrop, the overall performance of the Group was resilient, whereby we delivered record net income to equity holders for 2020 at SAR 11.44 billion on strong 18% balance sheet growth.

NCB’s resilience is a testament to the quality of our leadership and our people, further underpinned by successful strategy execution, building upon our strength in digital and mortgages while also focusing on core deposit growth and effective risk management.

The strength of NCB was further augmented by the announcement of an exciting merger with SAMBA Financial Group to create a new Saudi Banking Champion and regional financial powerhouse. As a result, we enter 2021 with our reputation, strength and financial health enhanced. We are confident in our ability to take advantage of an expected improvement in economic conditions and continue striving for stakeholder value creation.

Retail Banking recorded a strong financial performance in 2020, with net income rising 7% to SAR 5.8 billion. A key driver of this growth and profitability was the SAR 36.5 billion increase in the mortgage portfolio, nearly doubling to SAR 74 billion, and increasing our market share of outstanding credit by 4.1 percentage points to reach 25%.

In Corporate Banking, our strategic objective was to improve returns, which resulted in a 3% growth in corporate lending by focusing on high-quality financing and credit extended under Kafalah program. We remained focused on proactive risk management in order to mitigate impairments and manage the portfolio for value, which resulted in a normalization of the cost of risk during the second half of the year.

Treasury reported a healthy 20% growth in net income to SAR 4.2 billion. The investment portfolio grew by 8% as Treasury continued to bolster its position as a primary dealer in Saudi Government Sukuk issuances, and successfully leveraged market opportunities to grow investment returns, while maintaining the quality and liquidity of the investment book.

At NCB Capital, we saw strong 78% growth in net income, underpinned by 19% growth in client assets under management and exceptional brokerage income growth, which was driven by increased Tadawul trading volumes and higher brokerage market share from continued efforts to enhance the platform, engage with and acquire clients.

Türkiye Finans Katılım Bankası increased net income before Zakat and income tax by 62% to SAR 475 million, while carefully growing the financing book and containing risk cost and improving non-performing loan coverage. This was achieved despite the challenging Turkish operating environment.

On the Funding side, we generated strong current and call accounts growth of 27% through enhancements made to the Affluent and Cash Management business propositions as well as the ongoing focus on digital account opening. During 2020, NCB also made significant advances in expanding wholesale funding options to optimize the funding mix and cost further.

In relation to our Strategic Enablers, we accelerated our push in digital sales and service, supported by advanced data analytics, automation, robotics, and agile operating models. Furthermore, productivity improvements were made from substantially scaling up Robotics Process Automation and introducing additional technology and self-service options to complement the physical distribution network during 2020.

The execution on our strategy progressed very well during 2020, and was a key determinant in the Bank’s ability to confront and overcome the many challenges faced in 2020.

I would like to conclude by thanking the Board of Directors for their steadfast support throughout the year; my more than 13,000 colleagues for their relentless efforts to deliver on the bank’s aspirations; and our nine million customers for entrusting us with their business.

NCB has emerged from 2020 in a stronger position than it began, and the immense promise of our soon-tobe- finalized merger with Samba leads me to hold a highly positive view of the future.