Hamad Al-Sayari: Financial planning and wealth management in Saudi Arabia Speech by His Excellency Hamad Al-Sayari, Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, on the occasion of the graduation of the 7th and 8th Batches of the Financial Planning Program and the 2nd and 3rd Batches of the Wealth Management Program, Riyadh, 17 January 2007. *  *  *  Dear Audience, I am really glad on this blessed day to be with you in this happy occasion to celebrate the graduation of the 7th and 8th Batches of the Personal Financial Planning Program, and the 2nd and 3rd batches of the Wealth Management Program. In pursuance of its key role in developing the banking and financial sector, SAMA has been very keen to develop human resources in all financial and banking specializations. To this end, SAMA has made many initiatives. It has instructed the IOB to conduct a comprehensive study on the investment sector to determine the professional and educational criteria that must be satisfied by personnel involved in the various areas of investment. The findings of the study have showed that all staff working in investment and financial intermediation should have certain basic knowledge and skills in these fields. To meet these needs, the IOB designed scientific subjects and standardized tests on the basics of investment and stock trading. Moreover, the findings have indicated that banks’ customers are in need of persons specialized in offering financial advisory services.
These credit exposures with some sign of impairment may, in turn, be more vulnerable to the materialisation of the risks stemming from the current context. Accordingly, they should be monitored with particular care, and any potential losses must be recognised early and appropriately. The Spanish banking industry’s profitability improved substantially in 2021. Specifically, return on assets (ROA) stood at 0.7% (compared with -0.2% in 2020 and 0.5% in 2019). Extraordinary items,7 which were negative in 2020 and positive in 2021, had the largest impact on profitability. Excluding extraordinaries, ROA stood at 0.57%, a similar level to 7  In 2021 extraordinary gains were recognised as a result of two mergers € billion in total), the spin-off of an insurance company € billion) and restructuring costs at the two main banks € billion). In 2020, extraordinary items included negative adjustments to the goodwill of the two banks with the largest international presence € billion), an adjustment for deferred tax assets € billion), restructuring costs at one bank € billion) and capital gains on the sale of business lines € billion). 9  2019 (0.63%). The main driver of this improvement was the reduction in impairment losses, which fell by 43.5% compared with 2020 to stand at levels slightly below those in the two years prior to the pandemic. The recovery in profit was widespread across the main countries where Spanish banks pursue significant international business, and also extended to other European banks. Profitability continued to recover in early 2022.