Press Release
Jeddah, May 15, 2018
Saudi Real Estate Refinancing Company (SRC) signed a partnership agreement with National Commercial Bank (NCB) for a mortgage portfolio acquisition honored by H.E. Majed Al Hugail, Minister of Housing and Chairman at SRC.
The partnership agreement is the first of its kind between SRC and a Saudi bank to support home buyers and boost opportunities for home ownership. The agreement will allow for more market liquidity which will be provided to homebuyers through NCB.
The agreement was signed at NCB’s headquarters between Senior Vice President, Hamed Mohammed Fayez and SRC’s CEO Fabrice Susini in the presence of NCB’s CEO Mr. Saeed Al Ghamdi and a number of Chief Executives from both parties.
Fabrice Susini, CEO of SRC, stressed that signing this agreement with NCB supports homebuyers, as it supports SRC’s goal to enable lenders to provide housing finance solutions at more affordable rates. It brings greater liquidity and stability to the secondary mortgage market. He also stressed that this agreement is a live example to highlight the role of SRC in unlocking the housing market.
He added, “Our relationship with NCB goes beyond portfolio acquisition and, as a facilitator and not a competitor, we hope this is one of many agreements with other Saudi banks and financial institutions to enable lenders to provide more accessible home buying solutions.”
Saeed Al Ghamdi, CEO of NCB, said that the partnership with SRC is directly aligned with one of NCB’s key strategic priorities for 2018 to position NCB as the preferred funding partner for home loans through supporting national housing initiatives. He added that the mortgage portfolio acquisition by SRC accelerates the development of an effective secondary home loan market in Saudi Arabia.
The partnership with NCB follows agreements signed by SRC last year with three mortgage finance companies. SRC has SAR 3 billion of funding to spend on mortgage portfolio acquisition and short-term warehousing finance to create the market conditions to allow banks to offer more home loans.
