Global investments company BNY Mellon and SNB Capital, a unit of Saudi National Bank, said they have commenced the arranging and provision of integrated world class global securities services capabilities to institutional and large asset owners based in Saudi Arabia.

This builds on an earlier announcement in October 2020 in which NCB Capital (now SNB Capital following the merger with Samba Capital) announced its entry into an alliance with BNY Mellon, one of the largest investment services companies in the world.

The alliance was developed to address the demand to adopt global best practices of segregated asset management, brokerage and custody functions following the launch of the Kingdom’s Independent Custody Model in 2017.

The alliance is the first of its kind to bring together SNB Capital’s local market leadership in the adoption of recent technological and regulatory developments, while leveraging BNY Mellon’s global custody, asset servicing, data and technology capabilities.

The relationship is intended to benefit asset owners by providing them with access to diverse asset classes across local, regional and international markets.

Loai Bafaqeeh, Managing Director of the Securities Division at SNB Capital said: “The activation of our alliance with BNY Mellon fully enables SNB Capital’s Securities Services platform, further extending our leadership position in the local custody arena. We are excited about the additional services that we can now offer our clients, including local and global custody, administration, securities borrowing and lending, and clearing, all of which will contribute to the growth and development of the Kingdom’s capital markets, and the financial sector as a whole, in line with Vision 2030.

“Moreover, as financial services continue to pivot to more data-driven activities, our collaboration with BNY Mellon will also enable us to offer clients market-leading custody and consolidated reporting solutions, all while complying with the relevant cyber-security regulations.”

Anthony Habis, Head of the Middle East and Africa at BNY Mellon said: “SNB Capital’s local expertise, combined with our global capabilities capitalises on the growing opportunity for asset services in the Kingdom and supports the development of its financial infrastructure and banking sector.

“BNY Mellon has been serving clients in the region for over 100 years and we are excited to work together to meet the increasingly sophisticated demands of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s institutional clients; to provide data solutions, technological expertise, and breadth of experience.”

BNY Mellon has $45 trillion assets under custody and/or administration and works with a wide range of sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, governments and other clients throughout the region, offering asset servicing and ancillary services, corporate trust and treasury services.  In the Middle East, BNY Mellon has an office in Saudi Arabia, a branch office in the Dubai International Finance Centre and representative offices in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, Cairo and Istanbul.

SNB Capital’s market leadership is evidenced by its position as: Saudi Arabia’s largest custodian settling 22% of trades on Tadawul in Q4 2020, the Kingdom’s largest asset manager with $57 billion in assets under management as of June 2021, one of the sector’s leading investment banks, and a consistently top ranked broker on Tadawul. – TradeArabia News Service