VOL. XLII

No. 03

18-January-1999

SAUDI ARABIA

USB And Samba To Merge

Saudi Prince al-Walid ibn Talal announced on 6 January that the United Saudi Bank (USB), of which he is chairman, and the Saudi American Bank (Samba) have agreed to merge pending final approval from the Saudi central bank, SAMA. The move has since been approved by the respective boards and shareholders. The merged entity, which will retain Sambas name will hold combined assets of around SR80bn ($21bn see Table 1), will become...