The Alawwal Bank, previously known as Saudi Hollandi Bank, was a Saudi Arabian bank based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was the first operating bank in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and was founded in 1926 as a branch of the Netherlands Trading Society.
On 14 March 2021, Alawwal was fully merged with SABB.[4]
History
Netherlands Trading Society (1926)
It began as a branch of the Netherlands Trading Society in 1926 to serve the Hajj pilgrims from the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, and operated out of one office in Jeddah. As it was the only bank in the Kingdom at the time, it acted as the central bank, keeping the Kingdom's gold reserves and receiving oil revenues on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government. In 1928 the Saudi Riyal, a new silver coin commissioned by King Abdulaziz, became the Kingdom's first independent currency. The Netherlands Trading Society office in Jeddah assisted the government with the launch of the local currency.