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Saeed M. Al-Ghamdi is managing director and CEO of the new bank that resulted from the merger between the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and the Samba Financial Group. Before that, he was chairman of the NCB, building up more than 31 years of experience in the Saudi financial and banking sector. He has also been chairman of NCB Capital and the Saudi Credit Bureau. He serves on the board of the Real Estate General Authority and Misk Foundation and is a member of the consultative board of the College of Industrial Management at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.

On Saturday, the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) and the National Commercial Bank (NCB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI). The purpose of the Memorandum is to encourage the export in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia. According to the agreement, the signatories are to cooperate on finding solutions for the funding problems of SMEs. The agreement was signed under the auspices of JCCI's Chairman, Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel.

SMEs move from their entrepreneurial phase to a professionally-managed phase. As a result, there is a huge necessity for them to adopt the concept of corporate governance. According to a report by Capita Group International (CGI), Gulf SMEs are not particularly efficient. There is a huge difference between their share of employment and their share of gross domestic product (GDP) to GDP's disadvantage. National Commercial Bank (NCB) shows in a report that the majority of GCC businesses, especially SMEs, demonstrate low efficiency, low growth, little innovation and weak management.

Read more on: http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/challenge-of-entrepreneurship-in...

A study conducted by National Commercial Bank (NCB) showes that Gulf Cooperation Council member countries launched bonds worth around $20.9 billion in the first nine months of 2011, slightly lower than their value in the same period of 2010.
It added that even though the general mood of the sukuk market has turned very positive, new mainstream primary activity (closed issuances) in the Gulf was still restricted to four corporate issuances with an aggregate value of just under $1.6 billion, not an impressive figure by historical standards but more than 10 times the total conventional issuance seen during the quarter.