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SABB takes new approach to get more Saudis saving

September 2019

 

SABB has introduced a new concept of savings account for the Kingdom called ‘Waafer’. The account encourages more people to save monthly by offering higher returns, without the usual requirement to maintain a minimum balance.

The Waafer account is designed to make saving more realistic, rewarding and sustainable for all, while also contributing to the Vision 2030 goal of increasing household savings. Customers save by choosing an affordable monthly amount to be debited from their current account on a date of their choosing. As an added incentive, customers access higher rates of interest by selecting savings plans from one to three years. There are no set up costs for the account and it can be opened and managed completely online.

Naif Al-Abdulakareem, Deputy Managing Director Retail Banking and Wealth Management, said: “To change savings behavior Kingdom-wide, banks need to give more people, more of a reason to save. We challenged ourselves to do something completely different with Waafer. Now you don’t need a big lump sum to start saving, you just put away an affordable amount each month and enjoy higher rewards the longer you save.”

Adults can save between SAR 500 to 50,000 monthly (children can start as low as SAR 100). Benefits are tiered to increase with the length of your savings plan. Customers can choose a savings plan for one, two or three years. added to their total savings amount every 30 days. Customers can still cancel before their savings plan completes and receive all their monthly debits back, plus 50% of their accumulated profit.

By scrapping the typical minimum balance of traditional savings accounts, Waafer aims to encourage more young people, and those on lower budgets, to save. The Waafer account is the first of its kind in the Kingdom and is fully Shariah compliant, customers can also open multiple accounts.

Profit rate is calculated on a daily basis and added to the account monthly basis, thereby providing accumulated growth in profits payable at the end of the chosen savings term.