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When SAMA was founded in 1952, its headquarters was a rabbit warren of small buildings near the old Jidda airport. Decision making rested largely with foreigners. The bank's first governor was an American, and as late as 1974, at the time of the first big surge in OPEC oil prices, SAMA was headed by a Pakistani.
In that year Abdul Aziz al Quraishi, now 51, became the first Saudi to hold SAMA's purse strings. A member of the kingdom's expanding corps of Western-educated technocrats, Quraishi has a master's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California, but has had to learn about banking through on-the-job experience. A trio of early outside advisers helped him to master the mysteries of global high finance: John Meyer, onetime chairman of New York's Morgan Guaranty Trust, Alfred Schaefer, once chairman of Union Bank of Switzerland, and Robert Fleming, who headed his own merchant bank in London.
Today, Quraishi moves among international bankers with ease. Almost every day financial pilgrims to SAMA check into Riyadh's sumptuous Inter-Continental Hotel near the bank's headquarters and await an audience with Quraishi. Even David Rockefeller, recently retired chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, was once spotted in the Inter-Continental lobby whiling away the time before his appointment.
Though Western bankers give Quraishi high marks for learning his craft quickly, he still leans on outside help. Among the 300 staff members at SAMA's central office are currently perhaps a dozen key foreign advisers, including investment strategists on loan from Merrill Lynch, the largest U.S. brokerage house, and Baring Brothers, the venerable British merchant bank that 178 years ago helped finance the Louisiana Purchase. Top-level outside advice also flows in from senior officials of Morgan Guaranty, London's National Westminster Bank and Frankfurt's Deutsche Bank.
To reduce its dependence on foreign counsel, SAMA is now feverishly training a cadre of young Arab moneymen. Boot-camp is the Saudi International Bank in London, owned by SAMA and six of the world's leading financial institutions, including Banque Nationale de Paris and the Bank of Tokyo. The apprentice Saudi bankers soak up seasoning from their more experienced colleagues and practice their skills by helping to manage the bank's $1.2 billion loan portfolio.
Despite their shortcomings, the Saudi officials at SAMA are no soft touch. Says Michael Callen, who is managing director of the Saudi American Bank, a Riyadh-based affiliate of New York's Citibank: "A lot of borrowers think they've got a bank here run by people who ride camels. But the Saudis are tough and sophisticated. The foreign advisers may do the studies, but the Saudis make the decisions." One sign of tight Saudi control at SAMA: no telex can be wired from headquarters without a Saudi signature.
The chain of financial command in Saudi Arabia is short and autocratic. On multibillion-dollar investments, Crown Prince Fahd, who oversees most government matters for King Khalid, makes the final decision. For medium-scale transactions of a billion or two, Finance Minister Mohammed Ali Abdul Khail can give the approval. In deals involving no more than a mere $500 million, SAMA Governor Quraishi is empowered to act entirely on his own.