MAKKAH: A number of government bodies including the Finance Ministry were currently considering the privatization of a number of government funds including the Real Estate Development Fund (REDF), the Saudi Credit Bank (SCB), the Centennial Bank (CB) and others, local daily Al-Madinah reported Friday quoting an official source.
According to the source, the step was aimed at ensuring these funds would be able to increase their capital, especially now there are additional resources to augment the provisions allotted to them by the government in the general budget. "When they become fully private, the funds will be able to create mechanisms of collecting their loans from the beneficiaries. They will also be able to obtain loans for themselves from other commercial banks," he said.
The source expected the privatization to increase the number of customers of these funds especially the REDF and said these funds might open branches in all parts of the Kingdom to meet the rising demand for their services.
The source also said, once privatized, the fund might review their lending terms and conditions and would be able to increase the minimum salary required to obtain a loan from these funds from the current SR8,000 to SR10,000.
© Arab News 2012
