RIYADH: International investor interest in Saudi Arabia is booming thanks to the “bold and ambitious” economic reforms introduced as part of Vision 2030, according to a leading figure at the Bank of New York Mellon Corp..
Speaking to Arab News at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Anthony Habis — global head of client coverage at the bank — said it was the job of institutions like his to provide access to the Kingdom’s markets for those who want to play a role in the developing economy.
Habis said that BNY Mellon, who have been operating in the region for nearly a century, and in Saudi Arabia for over four decades, had a positive outlook for Saudi Arabia's economic future.
He said: “We're quite well informed on the local landscape. What we've seen over the last couple of years has been quite interesting, particularly with Vision 2030 and with the national investment strategy, the aspiration is quite bold and ambitious.
“They are doing a great job achieving and accomplishing against that quite aggressively.
“So from our standpoint, and from our perspective, the Kingdom is outperforming expectations.
“In essence, it's a real economy, and it's got scale, and whilst there are some challenges in the backdrop, certainly, the journey that they've come on has been quite impressive, to say the least.”
He added: “Any investor that's looking at an emerging markets play cannot ignore the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
To foster the role of facilitator, BNY Mellon, one of the largest investment services companies in the world is organizing a series of international campaigns to attract and facilitate investments in Saudi Arabia, the first of which kicked off in London in July this year.
Referring to the event, Habis said, "Most investors asked us how to access the local market, and how we can help them in doing that. And that is our role in terms of our partnership with SNBC capital. As an infrastructure, capital markets facilitator, it's our role to provide that to global investors into the kingdom.
In October 2020, SNB Capital Co., formerly NCB Capital, announced its entry into an alliance with BNY Mellon. By August 2021, the entities had launched integrated global securities services capabilities to institutional and large asset owners based in the Kingdom.
BNY Mellon’s association with SNB Capital grew further as they launched transformative data management solutions in the Kingdom in December 2021 to help build a robust, market-leading and inclusive capital markets ecosystem.
