Citigroup, UBS among global banks most exposed to Saudi rich under lens

Citigroup and UBS Group are among international banks managing the largest share of assets for wealthy Saudis, some of whom are being investigated as part of a government probe into alleged corruption, according to people familiar with the matter. JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse Group also manage billions of dollars for some of the kingdom’s richest individuals, the people said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Citigroup’s private bank counts Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the world’s 58th-richest person, and Khalid al-Tuwaijri, former chief of the Royal Court, as clients, two of the people said. Both are among those who were detained in the probe, the people said.

Saudi Arabia has long been the target of wealth managers such as UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, as well as other global banks seeking to advise the country’s ultra-rich.

The kingdom was the 16th most populous country for high-networth individuals last year with 176,000, according to Capgemini’s 2017 World Wealth Report.

It’s not immediately clear what implications the investigation will have on banks and their operations in the kingdom, the people said. UBS, Credit Suisse, Citigroup and JPMorgan declined to comment.

SWISS REGULATOR
Switzerland’s financial regulator Finma is in touch with some Swiss banks over their business with Saudi Arabian clients, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The regulator is “following global economic and political developments to assess what they would mean for the supervised banks,” a spokesman said, declining to comment on individual firms.

Private banks don’t usually disclose the amount of assets they manage for individual clients and most assets for Saudi Arabian high-net-worth individuals are held in offshore accounts, making it difficult to quantify the amount of assets under management.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s surprising series of arrests has implicated three of the kingdom’s richest people with combined assets worth about $31 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. As well as Alwaleed, also being held are billionaires Mohammed Al Amoudi, who controls investments across Africa, Europe and Saudi Arabia, and Saleh Kamel, who operates in Islamic banking, food and real estate.