National Commercial Bank (NCB) is the first Saudi owned bank, with a paid up capital of SAR30 million (USD8 million). It is also the largest bank in the Kingdom and the Middle East with SAR6 billion (USD1.6 billion) in paid up capital and SAR146 billion in total assets in year end 2005.

NCB was established in 1953 tracing its roots back to an exchange house founded just before World War II by Saleh and Abdulaziz Kaki, who were later joined by Salem bin Mahfouz. Before the emergence of Islamic banking, NCB benefited from two major factors: the refusal of many of its clients to accept interest on their deposits and from the 1970's economic boom in the country due to high oil prices.

In the late 1980's, NCB was involved in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal and in the mid 1990's, NCB did not release audited accounts in the midst of bad debts. For these reasons, in 1997, the Saudi government acquired the Kakis' shares then restructured and reconstituted NCB as a joint stock company. In 1999, the government acquired a majority stake in the bank through the ministry of finance's public investment fund and a new independent board was elected.

By year end 2005, NCB operated 261 branches throughout the kingdom of which 243 of them were dedicated exclusively to Islamic banking services serving 1.3 million clients. Also by year end 2005, conforming with the Saudi government's nationalization program, 86.1% of NCB's employees were Saudi nationals. NCB was the first bank to introduce mutual funds to the Saudi market in 1979 and NCB's Saudi Trading Equity Fund was rated as the top performing equity fund across the globe in June 2006 by Standard & Poor's Fund Services.

NCB has been recognized for both its Islamic and conventional commercial services winning awards from Euromoney, Banker Middle East and Saudi e-business.