Consumer loans rise by 5% in Q4, 2011

Volume of consumer bank loans by the end of the fourth quarter of last year reached more than SR 242.2 billion, rising by 5 percent compared to the third quarter of 2011, which exceeded SR 230.7 billion. The statistical report of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) for the first quarter of this year confirmed that the volume of consumer loans in Q4, 2011 rose by 16.8 percent compared to the first quarter of the same year, which exceeded SR 208.3 billion. The report stated that the total credit card loans in the Saudi banking system in Q4 2011 fell by 3.7 percent to reach more than SR 7.7 billion compared to more than SR 8 billion. The report pointed out that the number of branches of banks by the end Q1, 2012 reached 1,661 compared to 1,646 branches by the end of Q4 2011. It stressed that the number of ATMs at general banks and Saudi banks at the end of Q1, 2012 reached 11,860 compared to 11,766 by the end of the fourth quarter of last year, a slight increase of less than 1 percent, while the total number of ATM cards issued until the end of the first quarter of this year was 13.7 million cards compared to more from 14.2 million cards issued in the Q4, 2011.