Barclays Plc is returning to Saudi Arabia after an 11-year absence, marking each a strategic enlargement for the British lender and a symbolic validation of Riyadh’s rising standing because the Center East’s company command hub. The transfer, first reported by Bloomberg, comes as the dominion accelerates efforts below the nation’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 plan to diversify its oil-driven economic system and appeal to multinational headquarters into its capital.
The financial institution, which exited Saudi Arabia in 2014, is now securing a brand new funding banking license and plans to open places of work in Riyadh by early 2026, CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan mentioned in an interview with Bloomberg TV, the place he was attending the Fortune World Discussion board and the dominion’s flagship annual Future Funding Initiative summit. Confirming the financial institution’s re-entry into Saudi Arabia and that the dominion “will be recognizing” the brand new regional headquarters in simply a few days, the dominion’s Funding Minister Khalid Al-Falih mentioned, “People have seen that the kingdom is a long-term partner. We’re not transactional.”
Venkatakrishnan informed Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell that working with trusted companions is essential “because you’re making fairly large commitments financially and otherwise, and you need to work with partners whom you can trust and who are there for the long term and who will help you through the teething troubles.”
Barclays joins a rising record of economic giants like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC organising deeper roots within the Gulf’s largest economic system; in contrast JP Morgan is celebrating 90 years of doing enterprise within the area. The transfer underscores Saudi Arabia’s ambition to rework itself from being a petroleum superpower right into a diversified international enterprise and monetary hub, and more and more a strategic nexus from which main companies can entry three completely different continents with ease.
The broader RHQ program
Saudi Arabia’s nine-year-old financial transformation plan, generally known as Imaginative and prescient 2030, is 85% full, Minister Al-Falih mentioned in opening remarks on the Fortune World Discussion board. The technique has already attracted over 675 regional headquarters—properly previous its authentic goal of 500 by 2030—by beneficiant incentives corresponding to 30-year tax exemptions, tax reduction, and streamlined regulatory frameworks.
The federal government’s Regional Headquarters Program, launched in 2021 by the Royal Fee for Riyadh Metropolis, goals to make the capital the de facto financial heart of the Center East. Multinational gamers corresponding to PwC, Deloitte, Lenovo, and Siemens Vitality have already relocated management operations from Dubai and different hubs to Riyadh. Not like particular financial zone places of work elsewhere, RHQs in Riyadh are designed to function real operational bases—not symbolic branches—managing company technique and human capital throughout the whole Center East and Africa. Additionally, Riyadh’s trillion-dollar transformation—anchored by NEOM, the Public Funding Fund (PIF), and megaprojects throughout tourism, AI, and inexperienced power—represents a profitable alternative for capital suppliers.
At a breakout session on the Fortune World Discussion board, executives hailed this system as transformative for localization, manufacturing, and innovation. Executives at Lenovo, for instance, detailed building of the area’s largest ICT manufacturing plant within the Saudi desert, whereas leaders at Siemens Vitality spoke of increasing exports throughout the Center East by its Riyadh-based regional heart.
In dialog with Diane Brady, Government Editorial Director, Fortune Reside Media, executives from Massimo, Siemens, and Lucid Motors highlighted that their RHQs have allowed them to do issues like scale manufacturing, export autos to Europe, and construct AI-driven well being and transport techniques from inside the kingdom.
