When people say Samba in Saudi Arabia, they are more likely to be talking about the country's second largest bank than the Latin dance. Samba Financial Group (Samba), formerly the Saudi American Bank, is the second largest bank in Saudi Arabia with USD28.9 billion in total assets for year 2005 (behind National Commercial BankNational Commercial Bank).

Established in February 1980, Samba was founded with the acquisition of Citibank's branches in Saudi Arabia's two largest cities, Jeddah and Riyadh. This was in accordance with the nationalization program in the mid 1970's that obligated all foreign banks to sell majority equity interests to Saudi nationals. Upon the handover of the equity, Citigroup retained management rights of the Saudi American Bank and 40% equity stake. Having fulfilled its partial independence from Citigroup, on July 3, 1999, Samba merged with United Saudi Bank (USB), which was the result of an earlier merger between United Saudi Commercial Bank and Saudi Cairo Bank in 1997. This 1999 merger led to the advancement of the Samba Financial Group as the second largest bank in Saudi Arabia.

In September 2003, Citigroup handed over the bank's management to Samba and in May 2004, they sold its remaining equity of the bank to make it 100% Saudi owned. After the full and comprehensive removal of Citigroup's involvement with Samba for over 20 years, Samba's independence was quickly demonstrated with a 50% increase in its paid up capital to SAR6 billion on March 9, 2005.

Within the Saudi banking sector, Samba is seen as an innovative player. In 1997, it was one of the largest banks in the Kingdom to establish a subsidiary, Samba Fund Management, which introduced the first local equity fund SAIF. The fund was open to overseas investors and was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Samba was also the first Saudi bank to establish an Internet-based banking platform (SambaAccess) in 2001.

Samba offers a wide range of banking products such as loans, financial advisory, underwriting services, and other transaction products and services. Its commercial segment caters to the small and midsized business sector, while credit cards and car financing products are found under the "Al-Khair" (asset backed Islamic products) brand name.