Global financial services provider State Street launched its Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional headquarters in Riyadh, marking a major step in its long-term strategy to deepen roots in Saudi Arabia and enhance its regional reach.
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State Street’s new Riyadh base, approved by the Ministry of Investment, Saudi Arabia (MISA), will reportedly act as a hub for strategic direction, administration, and coordination across the MENA region.
Strengthening Regional Operations
The company has operated in Saudi Arabia for over 25 years, establishing local operations in 2020 and steadily expanding its presence since.
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As of this year, State Street’s assets under custody and administration in the Kingdom have grown to $127 billion, while assets under management have reached $60 billion. In 2024, the firm’s Saudi unit became State Street’s 11th global investment center, giving it the capability to manage institutional portfolios locally.
The new office is expected to strengthen Riyadh’s position as a regional business hub, a goal supported by MISA in efforts to attract multinational corporations to the Kingdom.
The Riyadh headquarters will host State Street’s regional senior leadership and corporate functions, serving as a center for innovation and collaboration. The company plans to leverage the hub to boost operational efficiency and support talent development in line with Saudi Arabia’s financial sector development goals.
More Online Trading Firms Target the Saudi Market
Lately, the Saudi market is attracting new collaborations in the online trading space. Recently, Audi Capital launched a new online trading platform in partnership with fintech firm GTN, giving Saudi investors access to a wide range of international markets.
The platform enables users to trade equities, ETFs, bonds, currencies, derivatives, commodities, and alternative investments across more than 80 global markets.
In another collaboration, Wamid, the technology arm of Saudi Tadawul Group, entered a multi-year partnership with BMLL Technologies to introduce Saudi Arabia’s first white-labelled, cloud-based market analytics platform for institutional investors and quantitative analysts.
The platform will offer access to comprehensive historical order book data and support advanced financial modeling in a Python-based environment. It is designed to enhance market analysis capabilities for local institutions and reflects ongoing efforts to modernize Saudi Arabia’s financial technology infrastructure.