Credit extended to the private sector went up by 12.1 percent to SAR 1,076.4 billion in 2013 (by 12.3 percent in January of this year). Domestic banks maintained their good financial solvency, recording a capital adequacy ratio of 17.9 percent at the end of 2013. The number of domestic and foreign banks operating in the Kingdom currently is 23, 12 of which are domestic and 11 are foreign which became 12 after licensing the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in 2012. Driven by the aim of achieving a better spread and service to a larger portion of citizens and expatriates, bank branches operating in the  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Kingdom grew up by 4.2 percent (72 branches) to 1,768 branches at the end of 2013. The number of ATMs stood at 13,883, increasing by 9.2 percent (11,71 machines) at the end of 2013 compared to 2012. At the same time, POS went up by 16.5 percent to 107,783. With regard to the insurance sector in the Kingdom, SAMA continued to guide this sector toward further regulation to work in accordance with highly professional standards and practices, aiming at promoting the competence of its staff and providing better insurance services to policy holders. The insurance sector witnessed a quantum leap over the past few years represented by developed potentials, skills and technical expertise of companies and increased awareness of insurance benefits.
Fahad Bin Abdullah Al-Mubarak: Economic, financial and supervisory developments in Saudi Arabia Opening speech by H E Dr Fahad Bin Abdullah Al-Mubarak, Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, on the occasion of the issuance of the 49th Annual Report, Riyadh, 17 March 2014. *  *  *  It gives me pleasure to meet you today. I would like to welcome you at SAMA and thank you for attending this conference on the occasion of the issuance of SAMA 49th Annual Report. We are deeply sorry for the delay of this gathering for reasons beyond our control. Ladies and gentlemen, At the beginning, I would like to review the latest economic developments in the Kingdom. Our economy continued its growth for the 14th consecutive year. The real GDP grew by 3.8 percent during 2013, which was greater than the global economic growth of 2.9 percent for the same year. The private sector grew by 5.5 percent. The growth of the Saudi economy was ascribed to the continuous government investment expenditure, especially on infrastructure projects, and continuous high-paced growth due to the achievements in the area of updating and improving regulations and enhancement of the business environment, which promoted domestic and foreign investments. The growth was also attributed to the finance provided by the domestic banks and specialized credit funds to the various economic activities in the Kingdom.