Gulf International Bank launches Middle Easts first online-only retail bank

Gulf International Bank (GIB) has launched the first online-only retail bank in the Middle East to attract its young tech-savvy customers.

Dubbed Meem, the bank will operate with branches in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran.

The online bank will provide personal finance products as well as credit cards in Saudi Arabia. It will allow customers to complete account opening process and get debit cards immediately, withdraw and deposit cash, make transfers and do own account maintenance.

The new retail banking platform will also provide non-traditional Shariah-compliant banking services such as ‘the-One-Pack’ account that combines the benefits of both current and savings accounts.

GIB intends to have around a 3% share of the Saudi consumer banking market by 2020.

GIB, hitherto a wholesale bank, was bailed out by the Saudi government after facing $757m in losses in 2007 due to investing in complicated debt instruments associated with the US subprime housing crisis.

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Commenting on the new bank, GIB chief executive Yahya Alyahya said, "It will be a mitigant for the bank against any potential financial crisis in the future so we will not face the problems that we faced in 2008, which took us to the point where the bank could have defaulted.

"Our strategy is to be a pan-Gulf universal bank, so after Saudi and when the proposition proves successful, we will move it to other countries. It could launch into another unspecified Gulf country by next year," he added.