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| Al Rajhi chief executive Abdullah Sulaiman Al Rajhi collects the Outstanding achievement award on behalf of his father from QFC chief executive Stuart Pearce |
When, in the middle of the last century, Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi and his brothers opened a bullion arbitrage and money-changing business, operated on Islamic principles, they could not have realized what they were starting. The global Islamic financial sector is now worth an estimated $1 trillion in assets, with a bond market of more than $50 billion. This figure is expected to increase dramatically as the Islamic financial sector grows by an estimated 23% a year and is broadening its appeal to include non-Islamic investors and issuers.
As for the company itself, it is now Al Rajhi Bank, the world’s largest Shariah-compliant financial institution, with a capital base that by March 2007 had grown to SR13.5 billion ($3.6 billion), 375 branches, 700 ATM machines and the start of an international operation with a branch in Malaysia.
And the key reason for the success of Al Rajhi Bank and the Islamic financial sector is that both have followed the values and principles that have governed Sulaiman Al Rajhi’s professional and private life.