Good afternoon. Good morning, everyone. My name is Aybek Islamov. I'm a MENA Financials Equity Research Analyst at HSBC. On behalf of HSBC, I'm very pleased to welcome you to Banque Saudi Fransi Strategy 2030 call. With no further ado, I'd like to hand over the call to Ms. Yasminah Abbas for further introductions. Over to you, Yasminah.
Thank you. Thank you, Aybek. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our first-ever strategy day. We hold this event to give you, our investors, an insight into management thinking, how we perceive the market, and how we have mapped our path forward to 2030. We will discuss our strategic direction and the priorities that will shape our progress towards 2030. You will hear first from Bader AlSalloom, our CEO, who will provide an overview of the Group's strategy. Our Chief Strategy and Finance Officer, Ramzy Darwish, will then cover the segmented strategies, the key enablers, and the financial model. We will then be available to answer your questions afterward. Should time not permit us to address all the questions, please send your questions-- during the Q&A session, p lease send your questions to us and we will reply by email promptly.
Additionally, members of the senior management team will be attending a number of regional and international conferences commencing at the end of March, which will provide further opportunities for continued engagement and dialogue. I hope today will give you the information, the data, and the insights to know BSF, to know us more, and to share our excitement about the future. Without further ado, I'll hand it over to our CEO, Bader AlSalloom.
Thank you, Yasminah. A very warm welcome to everyone on the call. Looking back, we launched our LEAP strategy back in 2019, which was followed by a refresh to align the strategy with post-COVID market realities. In 2022, we led the refocus of our strategy amidst evolving global markets, Vision 2030 acceleration, and geopolitical and economic uncertainties. We concluded our strategy cycle in 2025 and have successfully delivered more than a 2% increase in our key metric, return on equity. During that time, and while this growth is positive, it falls short of our ambitions. Today, I'm excited to launch Strategy 2030, where we aim to become better, stronger, faster bank, and deliver greater than 15% ROE. We'll achieve this by strengthening our core Business Banking activity and preparing for the future. This includes identifying future-proof opportunities, embracing emerging technologies, and adopting innovative business models.
Our ROE target implies an improvement in net income to SAR 10 billion. This will be enabled by a broad-based improvement across all segments. Toward the left, you could see an indicative breakdown of where the growth will come from. We continue to build and capitalize on traditional strengths. However, it is worth highlighting that more than 50% of incremental net income is expected to come from Retail, Treasury, and BSF Capital through targeted initiatives. For Personal Banking Group, we're focused on scaling up the differentiation in Affluent Banking, revamping channels, pursuing growth in Business Banking, while at the same time optimizing costs. In Private Banking, we're transforming our proposition to speed up income generation. We're also aiming to maintain J-B's lead in auto finance and targeting digital-led personal finance to drive growth. In BSF Capital, we're diversifying our product suite to accelerate fee-based income.
Cross-sell, of course, will be a key growth driver Groupwide. We believe that all of these strong execution skills will achieve our 15% ROE goal by 2030. These are ambitious targets, no doubt, but we have complete confidence in our team to achieve them. We will discuss a bit later how we've devised a robust execution framework to ensure not only delivery, but also effective execution of our strategies. I'll now give you a quick recap of what we've achieved in our previous strategy cycle and why we feel we are better prepared to start our new five-year journey. We've brought in a strong leadership team, which we're very proud of, built a foundation for sustainable growth, and revamped our branch networks.
We have improved and modernized the bank's infrastructure by upgrading our systems, including a complete upgrade of our core banking system, the launch of an integrated corporate portal, and a retail omni-channel platform. We have accelerated our digital transformation efforts and strengthened our position through diversification, capital optimization, and customer focus. Our financial performance also improved substantially. As mentioned earlier, we've improved our ROE to 12%. Throughout this period, we saw tremendous interest rate volatility. However, o ur net interest margin remained resilient, testament to the strength of BSF franchise. Despite significant investment in infrastructure and digital transformation, we've maintained our operating efficiency. We've made significant improvements in asset quality. The cost of risk has reduced, NPL coverage has significantly improved, and NPL ratio has dropped. We've improved funding and liquidity positions, evident in our improved LDR ratio.
These were driven by our efforts to diversify our funding sources and to become an early adapter of varied funding instruments across seniority and tenors, all while maintaining strong capital levels. All these efforts have helped us build a solid foundation for the future. We have a traditionally strong corporate banking franchise and a leading investment banking franchise. Currently, 80% of our loans are commercial loans, and we are proud to be the number one player in IPOs, a position we intend to guard and strengthen in the coming years. We were also able to maintain a competitive position in Private and Affluent Banking, where we perform above our natural market share. We now have a well-capitalized balance sheet and a diversified funding mix, coupled with strong efficiency and productivity profile. We have built a strong technology platform, resulting in our digital penetration reaching from 60% to 70%.
Finally, we dedicated significant efforts in enhancing our organizational readiness, ensuring that we have the right people and culture to support us in our journey. This commitment is reflected in the substantial improvement in our eNPS score to +38 from +9 five years ago. While we have indeed built a solid foundation, we remain aware of the fact that we are still lagging our peers in terms of total shareholder returns generated and return on equity. Addressing these gaps is a priority in our strategic agenda. Our fee income generation remains lower than peers. Efficiency has more room for improvement and there is scope for optimizing leverage. We will be giving the details of these measures later. As the macro landscape evolves, we face both opportunities and challenges.
With slowing GDP growth and lower interest rates, we must focus strategically on structured financing, risk management, and fee-led income in Wholesale and Treasury. Liquidity remains tight, and while conditions might ease slightly, access to low-cost deposits will be limited. Thus, securing stable deposits and exploring alternative fundings is crucial. Additionally, the expected SAR 4 trillion wealth transfer among Saudis in the next five years offers opportunities to tailor our financial services for the next generation, particularly in Affluent and Private Banking. We're targeting emerging growth areas such as youth, expatriates, private sector, and SMEs, with a particular focus on Business Banking. In an increasingly competitive fintech landscape, we're enhancing our fintech-led distribution expansion, particularly in J-B, to meet diverse client needs and drive growth. By aligning with these trends, we remain better prepared to navigate market challenges and achieve our strategic aspirations.
Let's talk about what it means to build a better, stronger, and faster bank for our stakeholders, our customers, employees, and shareholders. Let's start with Better. For our customers, this means we're committed to offering superior products with exceptional delivery. For our employees, it's about creating better opportunities for growth and delivering better performance and sustainable returns for our shareholders. Next, Stronger. We aim to build stronger trust [audio distortion] for our customers, a stronger culture of collaboration. For our shareholders, of course, this translates to a stronger balance sheet and a leading market position. Finally, Faster. Our goal is to provide more reliable services for our customers. For our employees, that means faster decision-making and execution. For our shareholders, it's about realizing strategic goals more swiftly. Now let's understand what Better, Stronger, and Faster looks like for 2030.
Better reflects our goal to increase our net income market share from the current 6% to between 8%-10%, translating to SAR 10 billion in net income by 2030. Stronger indicates an improvement in ROE from 12% to over 15% by 2030. Faster means significantly enhancing our straight-through processing from less than 20% currently to above 75% by 2030. Naturally, these objectives translate into a clear set of strategic priorities that guide our journey into the future. To become a better bank, we're focusing on maintaining our core leadership while expanding CASA across key segments. We aim to enhance margins through strategic portfolio shifts, growth initiatives, and enhancing cross-sell opportunities. With stronger, it's primarily about capital optimization to maintain a robust financial profile and trying out bold business models. We're building resilience through efficient risk management and having a flexible, externally focused organizational structure. Faster focuses on operational excellence.
We are aiming for zero operations with enhanced straight-through processing and using data and AI for efficient decision making. In addition to this, we are planning to leverage fintech partnerships to build next-gen tech to improve execution delivery and venture into exciting new territories. This slide provides a snapshot of the strategic initiatives we plan to take across each business segment. These efforts are designed to strengthen our core in Wholesale Banking, Private Banking, Retail and Affluent Banking, Treasury, and BSF Capital, while also preparing us for success in the new areas of J-B and Business Banking. All these initiatives are supported by Group-wide support functions and initiatives. What we like to call the enablers, which play a critical role in this plan. Ramzy, of course, will cover these details a bit later. As mentioned earlier, we remain focused on executing efficiently.
We have built a robust framework centered around clear goals and streamlined processes, learning from past strategies to introduce enhanced oversight and accountability measures. To ensure alignment, we conducted internal roadshows across the organization in our three regions. They were aimed at clearly communicating our strategic priorities and our 2030 ambition to build shared understanding in supporting successful execution of our strategy. We have got a strong team, a supportive culture, and effective IT enablers to back us up. Our governance structure is designed to maintain consistent execution rhythm on a day-to-day basis. Performance is solely measured on how effectively we execute and the value we create. Our strategy will be regularly refined to reflect changes in the market and competition. Of course, we are committed to transparency by providing consistent progress reports to our stakeholders, keeping everyone informed and of course, aligned.
We are poised not just to respond to change, but to lead it confidently. That being said, let me now hand it over to Ramzy, who will walk you through the segmental strategies in detail and provide insights into our financial roadmap. Ramzy, over to you.
Thank you, Bader. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to unpack BSF's 2030 strategy and financial roadmap. I will be walking you through the strategies we have outlined for our different business lines and what this translates to in terms of financial impact. Given the substance and number of slides, please excuse my brevity as we will go through some of the slides fairly quickly, since the content on these slides should provide the necessary information. I will deep dive through some of the items and highlight the key considerations and commentary. Starting on slide 17 with the largest contributor to the bank, the Wholesale Bank, where we continue to see opportunities and strong growth potential alongside the overall economic transformation. This momentum is supported by the continued rollout of the Vision 2030 agenda, alongside a strategic focus on MSMEs and non-bank financial institutions.
Crucially, as the business evolves, fee and transaction-based banking are expected to drive the next phase of growth through more tailored, structured and innovative client solutions. The opportunity is real. The market is moving. The growth tailwinds are there. Opportunity alone isn't enough. What matters is who is best positioned to capture it, and that's where our story becomes really powerful. Wholesale Banking isn't something new we're trying to become. It's who we already are. It is and always has been core to our DNA. With the Group historically operating as predominantly corporate bank, we serve more than 9,000 corporate clients, and we remain the primary banking partner for a majority of large corporate clients. Over time, we have built strong competitive advantages, including deep sector expertise and high relationship intensity, averaging roughly four products per client and an average client relationship of 13 years.
Our leadership and execution capabilities in project finance, the long-standing relationships with diversified family-led conglomerates and middle market corporates, and a digitally- enabled GTS platform continue to represent our core strengths. Together, these strengths have translated into a robust balance sheet with assets exceeding SAR 150 billion and a trusted franchise, as reflected in the doubling of our Net Promoter Score since 2022. We plan to continue building on and leveraging our core strengths in Wholesale Banking. Our ambition here is not growth for growth's sake, but it's profitable growth, disciplined growth, and higher quality growth. Our strategic aspiration is to drive bottom-line expansion, with net income growing at an annualized rate of around 9%, underpinned as well by a strong 9% annual growth in revenues.
This revenue growth is supported by targeted 8% year-on-year asset growth, as well as an improved revenue mix from increased cross-selling throughout the franchise. We will achieve these aspirations through a set of targeted initiatives. First, we are strengthening our global transaction banking by scaling our liquidity and cash management products. This will also be achieved through the digitization of trade payments and related services with the additional reinforcement through AI to improve operational efficiencies, and by the launch of banking as a service to enable embedded finance. We also remain focused on expanding our institutional banking coverage through continuous engagement with government bodies and other financial institutions. By building stronger correspondent relationships in key export markets, we will provide tailored solutions to increase our wallet share with clients.
Finally, we are enhancing our relationship coverage through a holistic framework with [grey rock]-based decision making embedded across the organization to guide capital deployment and client actions. This will be further boosted by AI tools to lever up RM capabilities and capacity with the likes of next best action tools, hyper-personalization alongside cross-sell discovery. Also, to drive effective execution, we are leveraging customer analytics and decision-making models to improve the efficiency of every riyal lent. As mentioned earlier, cross-sell and fee income generation are a key focus area. We expect to lower our reliance on lending income, decreasing its share from the current 80% to a target range of between 68%-72% as a result of the focus on cross-sell and other fee income.
We expect transactional fee income driven by trade finance, liquidity, cash management, and trade finance to rise by 5 percentage points- 8 percentage points, reaching a total of 16%-19%, especially as these increasingly turn digital and as we take benefit from our strong relationships and shift towards total customer value. Foreign exchange and other treasury-related services are projected to contribute 9%-12% of our total revenues as we introduce more custom-tailored products and offerings to provide transaction-specific requirements alongside hedging tools overall. We also plan to double the contribution of capital market services, moving from a modest 2% to a 4%-5% share as investment banking pools of revenue continue to expand with the development of the capital markets and advisory requirements moving forward.
Overall, these moves aim to diversify sources of revenue, but also expand coverage and product offerings to serve clients better while capturing a more natural market share, built upon our relationship coverage and supplemented with new and expanded digital capabilities and offerings. Now, I will talk about our next segment, which is the Treasury and Investment Group. We currently offer a broad range of capabilities, including balance sheet management, forex trading, market making, and sale services, a long with risk and structured products. These offerings allow us to serve our clients both effectively and efficiently.
Importantly, we continue to be a leader in wholesale funding. This leadership has enabled us to navigate the current environment of tight liquidity and stringent capital requirements effectively, thus ensuring diversification across sources of funding, geography, product, and more. Over the years, we have demonstrated strong execution capabilities, successfully raising SAR 35 billion in 2025 alone.
We have further cemented the bank as a regular issuer in the debt capital markets and developed long-term relationships across regions and counterparts to ensure transparency, activity, and optionality on a sustainable basis. Beyond the must-haves in terms of managing liquidity and interest rate risk, our goal in Treasury is also to deliver double-digit revenue and income growth over the five-year period. Investments are expected to grow at a more moderate 4% per annum, where we will explore yield-enhancing opportunities and aim to increase the alternative investments mix to 5% of the total portfolio. To achieve this, we aim to drive sales expansion through targeted campaigns and capturing under-penetrated segments by upskilling our RMs and bringing greater alignment between the Treasury and RMs. This will be in addition to enhancing and amplifying Treasury's already important role in the Group-wide cross-sell as a vital driver of growth.
We will also be focused on driving NIM enhancements through more efficient monitoring and analytics to better understand and predict customer behavior, while also launching new product offerings that are personalized to segments and customers. On the asset side. We've already mentioned some on the alternative investments, but we are also seeking better yields by deploying investment and hedging strategies on a more dynamic basis. All these efforts are helped by our plan to embed AI and modernize our treasury technology systems to future-proof the treasury activity. This will help achieve greater operational efficiencies through automation, improve time to market, expand the product offerings, and offer more personalized solutions. We've already created a natural language model for pricing and have several more use cases in the pipeline with regards to data analytics for optimal balance sheet utilization, deposit analysis, and product recommendations.
Now we will talk about BSF Capital and our aspirations for this segment. Here we offer a full suite capital markets platform comparable to the top three peers. Our broad capabilities from local and international brokerage to strong fixed income and Sukuk coverage, and now global asset management through BlackRock, position us as a universal investment house. We have demonstrated consistent strength as a leader in asset management capabilities and have delivered rapid growth in transaction volumes over the years. We are very proud of our top position in investment banking, dominating the IPO market over the last five years with unmatched strength in terms of people and history. The market continues to evolve and mature, creating attractive opportunities as the CMA introduces positive regulatory changes and opens the market to new investors.
We are also seeing rising digital flows driven by young and tech-savvy customers, alongside a shift in customer preference towards fixed income and Sukuk investments. In addition, the capital markets are broadening with capital raising by family businesses migrating from Nomu to the main market, further expanding the capital markets. We have set bold aspirations for BSF Capital. We aim to achieve annualized revenue growth of 13%, supported by 10% growth in assets. This will be across the main core operating segments of Investment Banking, where we continue to see non-banking- related activity increasing given the scarcity value; proprietary investments linked to new and more client-related activities across other segments; brokerage, which albeit coming from a low base, has an opportunity in cross-sell across the bank's core client base in institutional, private, and affluent banking.
Finally, on asset management, which remains our strongest segment and is expected to grow with initiatives we will highlight on the next slide, contributing approximately 34% of total revenue. With this growth, we aim to improve our ranking to reach the top five in KSA by 2030. Our strategy focuses on enhancing our value proposition across all customer segments. We remain focused on strengthening our capital market offerings through a wealth management transformation, scaling our robo-advisory, which will launch this year, and core advisory platforms. Alongside unique propositions such as that with third parties, and in particular, our exclusive relationship with BlackRock. We also aim to enhance our brokerage ecosystem across institutional, private, and affluent clients to enable faster execution and advanced trading capabilities.
We continue to capitalize on deep corporate relationships and plan to scale our investment banking franchise through increased transaction participation, M&A advisory, and deeper capture of the public-private value chain. Additionally, we remain focused on advancing our proprietary investment portfolio through swift deployment of seed capital and enhanced product launches. Now, I will discuss our Retail Banking Group or the Personal Banking Group, which is an integral part of our strategy to capture future market opportunities. Retail remains a diversified franchise with considerable strength in Affluent and Private Banking. On the asset side, the Personal Banking Group makes up most of the asset base and revenue generation. However, Private Banking and J-B outperform in terms of net income, partly due to the lower cost base. Here we remain on solid footing with a strong customer base of 1.36 million and a market share of 4%.
Our NPS score of 83 further demonstrates a strong customer preference for the bank. We see several evolving trends in the Retail segment and are confident in our ability to capture them. In the retail and affluent space, competition for clients has intensified alongside a slight slowdown in consumer lending. We view this as an opportunity to enhance product penetration within our existing customer base. The private banking space is seeing a rise in onshore wealth as client needs evolve and local capital markets mature. We have demonstrated clear strengths here as evidenced by our increasing NPS and strong retention rates. On the business banking side, which lends itself more so towards the retail offering, we currently have a modest market share and a small but rising client base.
It remains a strategically important segment due to its potential to accelerate deposit generation and its high profitability, which is scalable across products. Finally, J-B remains a unique proposition as the second largest bank-affiliated consumer finance company in the kingdom. We continue to see strong traction reflected in a growing base of 115,000 clients, with the app registering more than 300,000 registrations in 2025 alone. It also holds the number two position in the auto leasing segment. Supported by the influx of expatriates, increasing digital adoption, and rising demand for customized solutions, it is well-positioned to capture this growth. In the grand scheme of this strategy, Retail Banking will be a key contributor to net income enhancement, and we have set ambitious goals for this segment.
We aim to achieve 12% CAGR asset growth, contributing to a 21% year-over-year expansion in net income as we focus on margins in this space, the loan mix, and cost- to- income, more specifically. We are also targeting to expanding our business banking base to 100,000 accounts by 2030 and have already kickstarted this initiative just last month, with digitalization, a key enabler going forward. Additionally, our focus is on further strengthening our private banking offerings to become the go-to bank in Saudi for high-net-worth customers. As bold aspirations require targeted initiatives, we have outlined several focus areas for our Personal Banking Group. For our retail and affluent customers, we aim to improve client experience through tailored offerings. We are also focusing on repositioning our branches as advisory centers and deploying tech tools and machine learning to identify future affluent customers and predict deposit behavior.
In Business Banking, we plan to adopt a liability-led approach to drive CASA deposit gathering. We will also focus on scaling up our digital ecosystem to revamp GTS and drive lending growth through customized solutions. Under Private Banking, we aim to build upon existing relationships and increase our share of wallet through new product offerings. We also plan to expand BSF Capital and Sur multi-family office offerings, ensuring efficient delivery through a robust sales governance framework. Similar to Wholesale Banking, we are launching an RM AI assistant to supplement existing capacity and capabilities to improve and enhance coverage while bringing greater institutional know-how across the private bank. For J-B, I think it is better to go through the additional detail on the following page.
J-B leverages our position and helps us serve under-penetrated segments more efficiently. We have outlined targeted initiatives for this segment, where we aim to pursue accelerated distribution through enhanced experience and product offerings with a focus on scaling personal and fleet financing. We will also utilize embedded finance as an enabler for new partnerships. To further capture growth, we are also studying ways to acquire customers at scale through partnerships and selective M&A. As we progress on our digital transformation agenda, we are enhancing app and product features, enabling marketplace partnerships, and deploying data and AI-driven capabilities, such as back-office digitization, as well as AI-enabled service models to improve customer experience and drive scalable productivity.
Our aspirations for J-B will further support the personal finance group's financial goals, where we aim to achieve a 16% net income growth annually and reach the top three in market share amongst non-banking financial institutions. These efforts will be supported by balance sheet expansion and growing assets at a 23% CAGR. Overall, our vision is for J-B to be the number one personal finance application in the kingdom. Moving on. Obviously, our strategy is supported by a set of Group-wide enablers, functions, and initiatives. These cover everything across people, technology, operations, risk, control, and finance. I will confine my remarks to the most material of these. We will start with cross-sell. As the CEO mentioned earlier, one area where we have historically lagged peers is on fee income generation.
While our product and service capabilities are on par with the best in the kingdom, we have not fully captured the cross-sell opportunity across our business segments. Our objective is to unlock this value from existing relationships alongside new opportunities. To address this, we have launched a centralized cross-sell initiative under Strategy 2030 to deepen client relationships, accelerate fee growth, and support ROE expansion. This is underpinned by centralized senior management ownership, key account planning, clearer governance, and better alignment of incentives and KPIs across segments. We've already initiated the launch here, identifying priority corridors for value capture, in addition to identifying integration layers between the businesses for long-term operating framework setup. We view this not only as a must in terms of driving ROE improvement, a critical ask from our clients for more of a full suite of coverage across businesses.
On the chart on the right, our target non-interest income is expected to grow at around 11%-12% CAGR, slightly faster than loans over the next five years. With the initiative add-on of cross-selling, allowing this CAGR to reach 15%. As such, cross-sell will be a core pillar of our non-yield income growth strategy, with these initiatives targeted to contribute around 11% of total non-yield income by 2030. Over the next five years, we will continue to be focused on strengthening our technical capabilities to accelerate transformation and improve operational efficiency. We are modernizing our platforms to bring best-in-class digital solutions, including full digitization of our products and services, a more personalized and flexible mobile app, broader investment offerings, and tools that enhance customer engagement.
Through these initiatives, we are targeting a reduction in turnaround times of at least 50%, alongside a materially improved customer experience, helping to achieve greater scale and reach to expand business opportunities while managing, reallocating, or self-funding costs. We're also streamlining our operations with the ambition of moving towards zero operation processes, where transactions are automated and monitored in real time. This will cover the journeys across both customers as well as employees in dealing with external and internal steps and frictions. In parallel, I've mentioned a few use cases on AI so far throughout the presentation, as they were in almost every business. Some live already and some in the pipeline. In brief, we are embedding AI across the BSF ecosystem.
This will incorporate more general use to add time and resources to every employee, but also as highlighted in the different sections before, with a growing set of use cases focused on advanced analytics, faster decision-making, and stronger customer engagement. These will initially have a greater impact on cost optimization, but are expected to also contribute in time to revenue generation. These impacts are included in the financial roadmap through the lens of cost-income lever, driving positive jaws and greater efficiencies overall. Together, these initiatives will ensure our business is aligned with the digital capabilities required for the future and supported by a scalable future-ready platform and ecosystem. Of course, as a bank, we must also ensure risk management and culture continues to be paramount within the strategy. We have a robust risk framework in place that is a key enabler of our Strategy 2030.
Maintaining a resilient risk profile is imperative as we navigate an increasingly complex and evolving operating environment. At the Group level, our risk strategy focuses on strengthening both financial and operational resilience. This includes building strong recovery capabilities, regularly testing and updating our processes, and ensuring readiness for evolving regulatory requirements. This again has a twofold purpose. First, protecting the bank and its shareholders, but also ensuring availability, sustainability, and viability at the customer level, further reinforcing stronger ties and overall trust and relationship. Furthermore, as technology continues to advance, we are actively managing emerging risks related to AI-driven disruption, enhanced regulatory expectations, and cybersecurity. In corporate banking, the framework supports sustainable growth aligned with our risk appetite through more capital-efficient lending, greater automation, and AI early warning indicators.
In Retail Banking, we leverage AI-led credit origination and predictive portfolio monitoring, supported by a robust quality assurance framework and data-led early collections to scale responsibly while maintaining strong credit discipline. In a rapidly changing macro environment, this integrated framework enables swift and decisive responses, helping us protect asset quality, ensuring stability, and delivering sustainable long-term returns. Moving forward, I will discuss how this strategy translates into financial impact. You will see a number of assumptions and estimates in this section that follow, reflecting current conditions and the market outlook. As the environment evolves, some of these may move, but we remain firmly committed to our overall financial ambition, including an ROE of above 15%. We will start by discussing the macro landscape and the trends we are observing. The Saudi economy is positioned for solid growth, with non-oil activities continuing to support the expansion.
We expect oil prices to stabilize and the interest rate environment to become less volatile as we approach 2030. Within the banking system, loan growth is expected to continue to outpace deposits, keeping liquidity conditions a challenge. When coupled with higher regulatory requirements, such as the increase in the counter-cyclical capital buffer, this environment is expected to put some pressure on the overall ROE of the industry. Nevertheless, we've been working to create the necessary launchpad and environment for the bank to thrive in this environment. We worked early, diversifying liability sources and lengthening the maturity profile. We built up capital buffers to allow for sustainable, profitable growth and can utilize additional tools to augment if and when necessary. We've kicked off the cross-sell initiative to accelerate fee income and targeting the 15%+ ROE by 2030.
Speaking more specifically about BSF, on the balance sheet, assets are expected to grow at an 8% annualized rate, driven primarily by loans. Loans are projected to constitute 75% of the total balance sheet as growth in investments moderates some to 4%. It is important to note that investments are primarily utilized to manage interest rates and liquidity risk, and hence can be more dynamic depending on the structure and needs of the balance sheet. On the lending side, we expect a slightly faster growth rate of approximately 9% year-on-year. Consumer lending is projected to grow at 13%, outpacing the 8% growth expected in commercial lending. This shift is driven by our focus on scaling high margin personal finance lending, better penetration among private banking clients, and by our targeted efforts in Business Banking.
As a result, the consumer segment is expected to make up about 25% of the overall loan portfolio by 2030. Funding growth is expected to remain modest at 7% CAGR despite the liquidity challenges prevailing in the market. This growth is primarily driven by interest-bearing deposits, and total deposits are expected to constitute about 80% of the liabilities base. At the same time, we're making significant efforts to preserve our CASA mix as it drops marginally from 43% to 40%. We will maintain the CASA mix through targeted strategies for different segments. More specifically, by pushing for better penetration in Affluent and Private Banking, w e also aim to support this through the increased use of our cash management products and by growing our business banking customer base.
We expect growth on the top line with our operating income projected to grow by around 11% per annum, driven by increases in both interest income and non-yield income. Net interest income is projected to grow at a 10% CAGR, and this growth is supported by net interest margin expansion, driven by yield improvement, partially offset by a moderate increase in funding costs by 2030. Wholesale loans repricing, which began in 2025, is expected to continue over the strategy horizon, but the yield will be offset by declining reference rates. A similar trend is expected on Private Banking yields. Conversely, personal banking yields are expected to increase as higher yielding products like credit cards are expected to outpace mortgage and personal finance growth. While J-B will increase high margin consumer finance loans.
Cost of funding will increase as a result of duration extension on interest- bearing liabilities, as well as a slightly lower CASA ratio. Additionally, call accounts are expected to represent a higher proportion of total CASA. At segment levels, our Retail segments are expected to drive NIM expansion from 3% to approximately 3.3%, with a large uplift coming from higher- yield lending in J-B. Treasury will also support this through initiatives to improve yields on investments. Turning now to non-interest income, which we have highlighted quite a bit already, given its importance. We anticipate a robust growth rate of 15% on an annualized basis. This momentum is primarily driven by an 18% annual uptick in fee and commission income, alongside strong performance in our exchange income, which is expected to grow at a 17% annual growth rate. We expect this acceleration in fees and commissions to be broad-based.
Our strategy involves enhancing our GTS offerings, in particular with reference to trade and cash liquidity management, as well as expanding our credit card value proposition across J-B and private banking segments, further supported by our Group-wide cross-selling initiatives. Furthermore, we intend to leverage our leadership in investment banking and wealth management to drive advisory and transaction fees, with a strong focus on asset management and some additional uptake on the brokerage side. Through the efficient execution of these initiatives, non-interest income is projected to constitute approximately 21% of our total operating income by 2030. While we continue to invest heavily in our people and technology, we remain committed to disciplined cost management. Consequently, we expect total expenses to grow at 6% CAGR.
We do anticipate an uptick in staff costs driven by strategic migration of our workforce from back -office to front -office roles, inflationary salary adjustments, and the acquisition of high-skilled talent to drive our digital and AI agendas. However, through automation and operational efficiencies, we anticipate moderation in staff-related expense to 5% on an annualized basis. Non-staff expenses are projected to grow at a higher rate of 8% year- on- year, reflecting direct investment into our core strategic initiatives. Despite these outlays, our overall expenditure remains below our projected income expansion. This positive operating leverage ensures a gradual 7 percentage point improvement in our cost-to-income ratio. Following a year of low cost of risk, we anticipate a gradual normalization towards historical levels. Specifically, we expect corporate cost of risk to trend towards historical through-the-cycle averages of approximately 50 basis points- 60 basis points.
On the retail side, as we grow the higher- margin personal finance book in J-B, we foresee a measured uptick in the cost of risk. However, our robust recovery strategies, particularly within the Wholesale Bank, are expected to provide some support, keeping the overall cost of risk within the guided range. Consequently, we expect our NPL ratio to remain broadly stable even as we navigate through higher cost of risk levels. Our capital levels are expected to remain healthy and well above minimum regulatory requirements, driven by both organic earnings generation as well as strategic capital optimization. We have identified a set of initiatives already, grouped by complexity and impact, to ensure we maintain strong yet efficient capital levels.
We have already kickstarted this initiative and look to launch it fully over three waves over the years: focusing first on modeling and decision -making, as highlighted more specifically within the Wholesale Bank; then by a mix of internal and external capital unlock initiatives at the bank and subsidiaries; and f inally, by utilizing the full suite of tools and products we see globally to unlock additional value from a profitability perspective to put return on equity as the top target for the bank. In the meanwhile, to manage risks and regulatory requirements, we continue to maintain balance and prudence as we are targeting a capital adequacy ratio above 19% and a common equity tier one ratio exceeding 15% over the next five years. Bringing this together, all segments are expected to contribute meaningfully to the ROE uplift.
However, more than 80% of the improvement is projected to be driven by Retail, Treasury, and BSF Capital. The key drivers of this are retail expansion include our differentiated approach to the Affluent segment, a liability-led strategy in Business Banking, and capturing higher growth in under-penetrated personal finance segments. This is also supported by technology and AI to create greater efficiency and scale across the bank. In addition, we are prioritizing Group-wide cross-selling and yield enhancement to sustain this momentum. This expansion is driven by improvements across key financial metrics as we break out the levers that comprise ROE. As shown on this slide, on the left, we expect capital efficiency to improve meaningfully over the next five years, driven by higher leverage, around 30 basis points of NIM expansion to 3.3%, and a 40 -basis point increase in non-interest income fee yield on assets.
On the cost side, we expect improved efficiency with the cost-to-income ratio improving by 7 percentage points, while the cost of risk trends higher towards 60 basis points. All taken together, this is intended to drive the overall ROE towards 15%. I would like to conclude by highlighting our prudent capital allocation framework, which is built around three core components. First, we maintain strict capital discipline, deploying capital into businesses that generate high returns. This is evident by our intensified focus on Retail, Treasury, and BSF Capital. Second, we follow a conservative approach to regulatory capital, maintaining sufficient buffers above minimum requirements. Third, we are committed to delivering sustainable dividend growth to our shareholders, anchored around a 50% dividend payout ratio, combined with net income growth, subject to capital requirements and regulatory approvals.
That said, our capital allocation framework is not static and is informed by an evolving macroeconomic and regulatory environment. With that, I will hand back to Bader for closing remarks.
Thanks, Ramzy. To summarize, we are building a better, stronger, faster bank to close the gap to our peers and deliver an ROE of above 15% by 2030. While we will continue to build on our strengths in corporate banking, our main drivers of ROE uplift will come from increased focus on Retail, Treasury, and BSF Capital. This will be supported by a stronger emphasis on cross-selling across the Group, accelerating fee generation, and improving our revenue mix. At the same time, continued discipline on cost management will further enhance efficiency and support profitability. Finally, we will maintain financial resilience while optimizing capital to improve returns.
With that being said, now I'll be happy to open the floor for any questions. Thank you very much.
Yes, thank you very much for the presentation. Very useful insights. Thank you for the material you presented. Would like to start the Q&A. It will be a live Q&A session. Also, if you have a question that you'd like to type, there's a Q&A box where you can type your question and we'll address it during the session. Before we collect the Q&A line, I would like to start with a couple opening questions, if I may. Firstly, looking at your focus on non-funded income going forward, can you please elaborate whether there will be a strong focus on loan securitization, which would free up your capital but also increase the velocity of your capital? Obviously, loan securitization can be a very good driver of fees. Just will be interested to know this. That's the first question.
Secondly, are there any new key management appointments that were done recently that we should be aware of, in particular in the key business segments that you highlighted during the call, the segments of your strategic priority? That's the second question. Thirdly, we've seen your loan growth targets, how you plan to grow your loan portfolio. Can you please elaborate what market share trajectory do you have in mind, right? Again, the key segments, let's say Rretail and Corporate Banking. These are the three opening questions, and then we'll go to the other questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Aybek. Maybe I'll take the first and the third questions there. On loan securitizations, it is an item we have looked at, as a part of the capital optimization initiatives, not necessarily as a part of fees. We do recognize the benefit that it can bring in terms of freeing up capital and getting more leverage on that existing business. When we look at that, I think it's covering Retail, specifically, what we've seen in most cases on the mortgage side. On the retail side, given the risk -weighted assets is not as heavy as what we typically see in other businesses. It's a combination, I would say, in terms of liquidity and capital. For Wholesale and Corporate Banking, it is something that we have already started discussing with banks and asset managers as an opportunity set.
It's not necessarily a quick fix or an ad hoc item that we're looking at. We really want to think about this more strategically given the demand that we continue to see for loans, in particular on the corporate side over the course of the next few years, in line with the Vision 2030 agenda. So it is something that we are looking at. Lots of variables, I think, still at this stage, given pricing, capital relief, the regulatory requirements and the discussion there, but it is certainly on the agenda within the capital optimization initiative. I'll take the third question also on loan growth. Essentially what we did to build out the strategy is look at the banking pools and the balance sheet expectations in terms of growth from third-party providers and sort of more global forecasts.
There, on the wholesale side or corporate, we expect to be more or less in line with the market. So not necessarily capturing additional market share, but that's taking into account the existing opportunity set and value that is available given margins and fee income. For the consumer side, we do intend to grow faster than the market, similar to what was witnessed last year. This is several benefits in terms of managing the interest rate risk, getting ancillary business from customers in terms of customer lifetime value, but also the fact that it opens up new avenues that we can unlock on the cross-sell side with BSF Capital as one example. There, our expectation coming off a low base is to capture a bit more market share, more or less in line with what we've done over the last year or two.
For the question on the management appointments, I'll hand it over to the CEO.
Thank you. Regarding the new management appointments, the most recent, and to also complete the leadership team, was in the first half of 2025, when Majed AlGhanemi joined us as the Chief Transformation Officer. He is looking after technology, operations, and digital. He has been the most recent appointment, and completes the leadership team now. Thank you.
Great. Thank you for your answers. We'll now move to the Q&A session. The first question will come from the line of Chiro Ghosh. Chiro, please announce yourself and ask your question.
Hi. This is Chiro Ghosh from SICO, Bahrain. Three very short and quick questions. First is, I get a sense that bulk of your strategy rests on this J-B entity, basically. I want to get a sense that on a risk- adjusted return basis, how does J-B stand versus your current existing portfolio? Just want to understand how much push would be provided from that entity. That's one. Second is, we are hearing still lot of competition in the retail space. I know you have done better than the market this year. If you can throw some light on how competitive is the landscape right now in the retail space, and the outlook on that direction? The third one is, what kind of interest rate outlook are you taking over the next four or five years?
Your margin appears to be moving up while we might be seeing a downward trending interest rate cycle, at least over the next three years, four years. Yeah, these are my three questions.
Thank you, Chiro. I think we'll work on this one backwards. I'll start with the interest rate outlook. What we've done, regularly update this, but the latest we have is looking at still further cuts expected in the Federal Reserve funds rate and, in line with that from the Saudi Central Bank, in the reverse and repo rates. Thereafter, a pickup in interest rates. But when we look at the range, it comes more or less back to the starting point, similar to where we are now. The start and end points, if I were looking at the beginning and end, very close to one another as it stands. I want to highlight this again for BSF specifically, given our attention to interest rate risk management, in particular using off-balance sheet cash flow hedges. We've always been trying to mitigate interest rate sensitivity to a great extent.
This is obviously subject to the balance sheet mix, that'll be our intention so far going forward, to neutralize the interest rate impact on either side of the moves.
On the retail?
Yeah.
I'll take the second question regarding the competition on the retail. Yes, there is very fierce competition in the retail space. However, for BSF, our focus is going to be on Affluent Banking, which we believe that we do have a strong presence given our strong Private Banking franchise, and also Business Banking. Again, given our strong presence in Corporate Banking. Within the retail space, the focus will be on Affluent and Business Banking rather than Mass. Mass, of course, we will use our digital platform and continuing to upgrade our digital platform to service the Mass.
Finally, on the question related to J-B. We're very excited about J-B, but I do want to emphasize that it's not the only driver in terms of ROE uplift and net income. It's really across the businesses and especially between the businesses when we look at a cross-sell. Nevertheless, when we look at J-B specifically, the opportunity there is first because it's an under-tapped segment for BSF specifically, given our attention and focus is more on Private and Affluent. This unlocks the Mass segment, which has not been an area that we've tackled previously, but it also does it in a cost-efficient way via more of a fintech/digital play. When we look at the returns there, average somewhere around 15% sort of gross yield. When you knock off cost of risk and cost of funding, you still maintain a ROA of around 5%.
Expectations going forward are for additional enhancements on the margin. This would make it go up to 7% on a risk-adjusted basis. That potential is strong and one of the reasons why we want to continue focusing on this opportunity set.
Thank you. We'll move on to the next question. The next question will come from the line of Olga Veselova. Olga, please announce yourself and ask your question.
Big thank you for the detailed presentation. We really appreciate the additional disclosures with this high level of digitization. Thank you. I have several questions. One is on fee income. You target 18% fee income cover for the next five years, which is well above the run rate at peers. My question is, which differentiated products do you offer? Or, your new product offering is broadly the same, you're rather catching up with peers' product mix? That's question one. Question number two is, what should help you to expand margin over the next five years? I hear you expect some increase in interest rates, but also I'm hearing you're making an effort in J-B. Is this that, higher rates over time and J-B impact, or there is anything else what you think you can do on margin support? My question number three is, M&A.
You did mention during the presentation that there could be inorganic expansion in J-B. Can you elaborate, please, on that? Are there any other areas where you may consider acquisitions? My fourth question. Sorry, I have so many. My fourth question is on deposits. For the banking sector, you expect deposits growth at 5% per annum. What makes you believe deposits will slow down to basically below nominal growth of GDP? Thank you.
I'll take the first question regarding fee income, and where we expect the fee income to come from. This new strategy is more of a growth strategy, given that our previous strategy cycle was more focused on transformation. Given the transformation that we've undergone, mainly when it comes to our technology infrastructure upgrade, we do believe that the upside when it comes to products, mainly in the GTS space, global transactional solutions, being trade finance, supply chain financing, and others, will be the main driver for that fee income growth. In addition to, of course, the focus on BSF Capital. Mainly where we see that fee income growth is going to be on the back of both trade finance and liquidity and cash management, which we are now unleashing after the transformation focus in the first strategy slide.
Thank you, Olga, for the questions. I'll take the rest. I think, on the margin. It's specific to each individual segment, but when we look at Wholesale, we continue to see opportunities to reprice. We've kickstarted this earlier than most. We still see some opportunity there, going forward. This will be offset by increased cost of funding, given the shift in the mix. This would be similar situation to the Private Bank. When we look at Retail, specifically as a segment, given the shift in mix towards credit cards, and Lombard lending, both of these products give an opportunity to enhance the margin. J-B, the main differentiator specifically on net interest margin in terms of impact, given the higher growth yields, compared to others.
I think with the other item maybe to highlight within NIM is that even though we do intend to have a growing CASA in absolute terms, in percentage terms it will be slightly lower. On interest rate sensitivity as highlighted, we would expect this to be relatively muted given the overall positioning of the bank. The third question on M&A, I think still at its infancy. But within J-B specifically, we did want to open up the opportunity to enhance distribution, primarily through partnerships, but also, if available, through potential acquisitions of smaller players where we could bolt on to the existing platform. The reason it made more sense for us with J-B is given they are relatively more tech -light, and future -proof already, given the investments they have made over the last few years.
That's the idea to really double down in terms of distribution and capture of market share. Lastly, just on deposit growth, if you could repeat the question.
The question was, I believe Olga could be on mute, but yeah, the question was around the sector deposit growth indicating at 5%, right? With regards to your expectations, why is that below normal GDP growth? Can you please elaborate on your 5% sector deposit growth expectations?
I think from our perspective, we did not adjust the numbers. These would be how we receive them from the third party providers, trying to take into account, again, a multitude of factors. We do realize there's different scenarios out there in terms of assumptions. Our view as BSF on the deposits is we've built up quite a lot in terms of the wholesale side. We expect that wholesale funding will grow more or less in line with the balance sheet. Deposits as a core part of the franchise, given the focus on specific segments, mainly liability providers and Private Banking, but also Business Banking, that this would allow us to capture a greater share than what we've done in the past. I hope that answered the question.
Yes. Very good. Thank you. I'll read out a couple questions from the Q&A box, right? The first question is with regards to the cost of risk guidance. Can you please break down your cost of risk guidance between Wholesale and Retail? The second question is about your operating efficiency with regards to the cost-to- income ratio guidance. How conservative is this guidance, right? I think there are a couple investors who are concerned about the fact that cost-to- income ratio has been somewhat disappointing in the last three years, and what does management plan to do differently around the cost management? That's the question in the Q&A box.
Sure. Maybe I'll start with the cost -to -income. I think when we look at it over the course of a given year, we realize there may be some volatility. I think we've introduced a lot of cost optimization over the last few years, while continuing to invest in our people, but also in terms of the technology. A lot of these investments will bear fruit and have borne fruit already. Going forward, we want to think about it more strategically in terms of really having a better handle on ROI for investments, in particular, on the technology side. I think we've built this in to still include cost growth over the course of the next few years, but it's more of a measured, managed cost growth, more or less in line with what we've done this last year.
The difference really is going to continue coming on the revenue side, where we expect to capture more, mainly coming through the retail institutional banking businesses, but also on cross-sell and fee income. The additional item that's new compared to previous years is this strategic initiative on zero operations in terms of process, and customer journeys adjustment to limit friction, but also enhance the capacity of each individual at the bank, whether it's front office or back office, and the addition of AI and what it can do there. This will help us to continue to grow, maybe even faster on the cost side, while also recognizing savings in parallel, driving this relatively conservative cost growth aspiration over the next few years.
On cost of risk, again, the main driver in the increase is coming from J-B, given it will play a larger role in the context of the portfolio, albeit still relatively small. When we look at Wholesale Banking, cost of risk more or less in line with our 50 basis points- 60 basis point expectation, whereas Retail will continue to be relatively muted given its typically salary -backed, and also collateral -backed in the case of Lombard lending. Around 20 basis points on the retail side.
Thank you very much. We'll move on to the next participant. The question will come from the line of Fahad Alghamdi. Fahad, please announce yourself and ask your question.
Yes. Alsalamu alaykum. This is Fahad Alghamdi from NBK Wealth. First of all, thank you for the presentation, and good luck in the strategy. I have one question on my side. Basically, I want to ask you on your hedging strategy going forward. If you can shed some light on the SAR 29 billion position of foreign currency swap in the balance sheet, h ow do you see it impacting the profitability, especially you had net hedging losses from this contract around SAR 74 million-SAR 75 million in 2025?
Yeah, thank you, Fahad. If I heard correctly on the first question on interest rate hedges, our intention there is to maintain a more neutral interest rate sensitivity position. When we look at what this meant on our balance sheet five years ago, it would've been something closer to SAR 70 billion in cash flow hedges. Now, given the change in the balance sheet mix across both assets where we have more retail fixed -rate, also more investments that are fixed -rate, and on the liability side, a greater proportion of variable rate funding, it's requiring less of the cash flow hedge in nominal terms to reach that neutral position. It's really dependent on the balance sheet mix going forward, but our intention is to manage this holistically at a portfolio level.
The options that we would do to manage would be through the investment book, the retail, or as a third option, the cash flow hedges. Our intention there is to keep it more dynamic, but the aim is to limit interest rate sensitivity. On the second question on FX. This is typically the foreign exchange swaps or cross-currency swaps that the Treasury would be utilizing. If it's for hedging, it will be recognized as such, but there will also be quite a bit of demand there from clients as they hedge out their foreign exchange risk. Banks will use this typically for financing, converting between dollars and riyals and vice versa, and typically use it on a relatively short-term basis for the vast majority. Here, our expectation, again, is depending on the needs, particularly on the loan side in terms of currency t o continue utilizing this going forward.
Presumably, it would continue to maintain its current percentage share as a proportion of the overall loan book.
Thank you. The next question will come from the line of Murad Ansari. Murad, please announce yourself and ask your questions.
Hello. Hi, thank you for the detailed presentation and all the best for the strategy ahead. A few questions around capital and growth. Over the last year or so, I think there has been a very strong push from within the bank on mortgages, which has been a good story for BSF. It seems like as you look at the retail growth over the next five years, it seems a lot more dependent on non-mortgage product. Is that read correct? Do you still see mortgage as a key driver here, and you continue to gain market share on that side? Secondly, on your RWA intensity, it's around 85%-87%. Do you expect some improvement as you go over the next five years? Is that an area of capital optimization or no? Thirdly, on your cost of risk.
Could you give us maybe a ballpark figure of what historical cost of risk has been on J-B? Because I'm looking at your 60 basis points cost of risk, I'm assuming a 30-basis-point to 40- basis- point CoR on corporate would probably translate at about 125-basis-point to 140- basis -point cost of risk on the retail side. Would that be fair to assume, and how does that compare with historical? Last one, on the cash flow hedges. Just following up. It seems when you talk about growing retail, and when you talk about growing the fixed income portfolio, it seems like that you're more focusing on balance sheet structure to provide that interest rate hedge to you as you go and move forward. Probably, the cash flow hedges probably are less of a requirement going forward. Would that be fair to assume? Thank you.
Sure. I'll take the first question regarding mortgages. As you actually said, it was a good year for mortgages in 2025. Going into 2030, we intend to continue to focus on mortgages. Currently, mortgages comprise of about 50% of our retail loan book, and we intend by 2030 for that to reach around 55% of the retail loan book.
I'll take the other set of questions. On RWA density, it is an area that we are looking at. I think we've already identified some levers that we can pull. Again, we want to think about this more strategically, long term. What needs are there, and the availability to work on RWA density overall, including some that we already discussed on securitization or SRT and the like. On cost of risk, the historical blended average for J-B has been about 3%, and this is driven by both auto lease and personal finance. We do expect to see this continue to inch higher given the shift in terms of loan balance more towards personal finance. While auto lease will continue to grow, but not at the same pace. Lastly, on the interest rate question for cash flow hedges.
Again, it is subject to different variables. Assuming the growth as expected and the investment book and retail growth, then yes, the cash flow hedges would no longer be as required as it had been in the past. Again, I want to highlight that we want to try to manage this at a holistic portfolio level, depending on the opportunity in terms of return versus the risk between the three classification options we have: investment book, retail, or the cash flow hedge.
Thank you. We'll move to the next question from the line of Mehmet Sevim. Mehmet, please announce yourself and ask your question.
Yes, good evening. Thanks very much for the presentation and all the granular information. It's really very helpful, and all the best. I have just one final question from my side, and that will be just on the trajectory of the improvement in some of the lines. Given your guidance is very ambitious and shows a meaningful acceleration from recent momentum in lines such as fee income, h ow should we think about the yearly improvements? Is it gradual or is it more back-loaded? Are there any low-hanging fruits that you can pick in the near term to show that meaningful improvement, or do you require more investments? For example, product introductions, et cetera, that would show the improvement in the outer years. Thank you.
I'll take the first question regarding the fee income. We do expect within the next five years that fee income will gradually grow with acceleration towards the middle and the end as we see more of the initiatives come to life.
I think when we look at this overall, what we do recognize is there is an opportunity, just given our peers and where they stand versus where we are. Given our lower base, we feel at least the opportunity is there. It really will have to come down to execution. In terms of areas of opportunity. When we look at the Wholesale, it's really continuing to drive a strength that we have in trade, capturing our fair market share. Liquidity and cash management is an area where we recognize significant opportunities specifically to BSF, given its current standing. When we look at BSF Capital, strong growth momentum over the last year, unlocking greater value, in particular on the asset management side, a lready a strong position on the investment bank where we feel there is going to be additional opportunities given the demand for non-banking transactions.
A small uptick on the brokerage side. Maybe not necessarily to our natural market share, but as a must for our client base in terms of demand on product and capability. This is an area where we want to also add additional spotlight by putting it at the forefront of the cross-sell initiative and putting a greater spotlight by the CEO himself, and more of a centralized focus attention from the senior management team.
Thank you for your answers. We have a couple more questions from the line here. Next one is from the line of Waruna Kumarage. Waruna, please announce yourself and ask your questions.
Hi. Good afternoon. Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Hi. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you to the management for the very useful presentation. It was very detailed, useful information. I have one question regarding the drivers on the wholesale banking side. As you mentioned, you emphasize on things like trade finance, cash management, where you want to capture more market share with a lot of potential. I want to understand with regards to competition. There are other established players, names in the market, which has a very strong presence amongst large corporates, blue chips. I want to get an understanding on how you are planning to penetrate into this segment? That's my question.
Thank you for the question. We recognize the competition also will continue to be moving. The opportunities that as a banking pool continues to grow. Here, what we've done is really the second phase of our previous strategy specific to global transaction solutions. What we've invested in previously has been more focused on trade, given that's a strength we already had, bringing this to a more digital transaction base. We've been successful there with the launch of the integrated corporate portal more recently. The one remaining element there is still on the liquidity and cash management side. This has been an area that clients have been asking for and an area that we can continue to leverage, but also digitize similar to what we've done on trade.
When I look at the client base, our forte really has been this trust and relationship with clients and our ability to partner with them through thick and thin. This is an area where we feel if we can provide the transactions and products and services, that we will be able to capture more share. I think right now it is a function of the capability and capacity. Some of it digital related, some of it more process related. All of these have been things that we've been working on over the last years and will continue to focus on going forward.
Thank you very much. Well, this completes our today's strategy call. I would like to thank the management for their participation on all the questions that were raised during the session. I would like to hand over the call back to management, acknowledging that we didn't have time to answer all the questions on the call.
Thank you very much. As a final point, I'd like to briefly explain how our Strategy 2030 strengthens and reinforces our investment thesis. We believe sustained value creation is built on four key pillars. First, the strong growth opportunities driven by favorable demographics and the Kingdom's transformation agenda, alongside our targeted growth initiatives across the bank. Second, a robust and scalable business model, which delivered ROE expansion to around 12% in 2025 and provides a clear line of sight to achieving our ROE target of 15% by 2030. Third, an agile management team focused on disciplined capital allocation toward higher return businesses, maintaining a strong and efficient capital position, and delivering sustainable returns to shareholders. Finally, fourth, our ability to protect and build on the strengths we have developed over time, allowing us to sustain momentum and execute consistently.
With that being said, thank you very much, everyone, for joining us today as we begin our journey and descent to 2030. We look forward to seeing you at investment conferences in the near future, and we'll keep you updated on the progress in the years ahead. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you everyone. For any questions we couldn't answer, please direct them to the Investor Relations team of Banque Saudi Fransi. Thank you, everyone.