Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s Central Bank (SAMA) revealed in a recent report that a total of 72 branches of local banks have ceased operation in the Kingdom within a year.

This was mainly attributed to an accelerated pace in Saudi Arabia’s transformation into a digital economy, according to a monitoring of Okaz/Saudi Gazette based on the Central Bank data.

There has been a fall of 3.58 percent in the number of bank branches, reaching the total branches of banks 1,941 by the end of January 2022 as against 2013 branches during the same period in January 2021. It is estimated that an average six bank branches exit the local market in a month.

There are a total of Saudi and foreign banks licensed to operate in the Kingdom. These included 10 local banks and 16 Gulf and foreign banks that own about 28 branches in the Kingdom. The monitoring showed that the total number of branches of remittance centers dropped by more than five percent during the whole year, reaching 701 branches at the end of last January, compared to 738 branches during the same period last year.

The number of ATMs that went out of service reached about 1,755 during the 250 official working days of 2021. The number of ATMs operating at the end of last year decreased to 16,544, a fall in the number of operating machines by 9.59 percent while compared to 2020, when the number of ATMs accounted for 18,299.

According to the monitoring, e-commerce activities recorded a big jump over the last 12 months, reaching the total value of SR8.23 billion, an increase of SR3.85 billion while compared to January 2021. The average daily sales during January 2022 reached SR265.45 million and this was via Mada cards only and not included other credit cards.