SABB In The Community Programme

SABB in the Community

Having been at the forefront of banking in Saudi Arabia for almost 30 years, SABB is an integral part of the community. This is a role we enjoy and we work hard to maintain.

Inline with his Corporate Social Responsibility objectives to be an active corporate citizen in our community, every year, SABB takes part in a range of social events of national interest and supports various local charities. SABB is also active in the field of education, offering scholarships and training programmes for Saudi graduates preparing for a career in banking.

In the business sector, SABB supports a number of conferences, largely aimed at encouraging local and international investment in the Kingdom, in addition to sponsoring symposiums organised by Government agencies and local authorities.

SABB Scholarship Scheme

SABB Scholarship Scheme - enables Saudi graduates - males and females - to obtain MBA degree from recognized universities in the UK. Through this scheme SABB provides the tuition fees, accommodation and living expenses, travel allowance and a daily allowance for the selected candidates.

SABB started the scheme in 1997 and the total candidates who have been granted the scholarships are 48 graduates, 6 of them are ladies.

Summer Students Training

SABB implements summer training program to sponsor students seeking further training in private local training centers during the summer school break. Since it was started in 1998, this program sponsors 200 students from all regions of the kingdom each year.

The COOP Program

SABB is implementing a cooperative training program in coordination with a number of universities and institutes in the Kingdom. The Program duration is six months and it is considered as part of the student’s graduation requirements. So far, 87 students have been trained since inception (2002).

Chair of Finance At KFUPM

SABB is sponsoring the Chair of Finance at King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals. The sponsorship of the chair commenced in 1997, and SABB is contributing to this programme since initiation and till present.

The Chevening Scholarship Programme

The Chevening Scholarship is a well-known scholarship scheme, which enables Saudi students to study in the United Kingdom for postgraduate studies or research at UK’s best institutions of higher education. As a part of its commitment towards the community, SABB contribution to the funding of this scheme started since inception in 2003, to sponsor 9 Saudi students each year.

Al-Masrafi Program

Al-Masrafi is a program supervised by SAMA, to provide free training to Saudi graduates to acquire skills that will enable them to work in the banking sector. SABB was a major contributor to this Program that commenced in 2006 to train 500 students for a period of 4 months.

Contribution to Centennial Foundation

The Centennial Foundation aims to help young Saudi entrepreneurs achieve economic independence by becoming successfully self employed through mobilizing the support of Saudi business community through their corporate citizenship program. SABB is committed to support theis foundation for a period of 5 years starting 2002.

Prince Salman Disability Research Center

The center is specialized in disability research; it supports the researches contributing to the creation and enrichment of knowledge on the human evolution, awareness of disability prevention and treatment and upgrading of the living standard of the disabled by enabling them to maximize the use of their potential powers. SABB is committed to support this center over a period of 5 years, commencing 2004.

SABB Blood Donation Campaign

A Blood Donation campaign was initiated and carried out by SABB on 15 March 2008, in collaboration with King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre - an event that comes under "SABB in the Community Programmes". Priority to utilize the quantities of donated blood will be given to "Sanad Children's Cancer Support Society".

The main purpose of the campaign is to expand our social responsibility programmes, in addition to promoting awareness of social services among the bank's employees, through their participation in various charitable and social events carried out by SABB. However, this campaign has witnessed large participation from SABB employees who contributed enthusiastically to this humanitarian cause.

INSAN – Orphans School Bag Scheme

In line with its role as an active supporter of charitable causes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, SABB has donated school bags as a contribution by the Bank towards the School Bag Scheme to Orphan Care Charitable Society (INSAN) at the beginning of the academic years from 2005 till 2007.

Eid Gifts for needy families

As part of its social responsibility, SABB distributes “Eid Gifts” packs, for needy families in Riyadh, consisting of items required during Eid festivities.

A group of SABB staff volunteer in this programme, and assist in distributing gift packs - to poor and needy families - that are required during Eid Al-Fitr celebrations, which consist of food stuff, clothes, etc...

The purpose of this programme is to underline the Bank’s commitment to social responsibility in helping needy families, and to promote social programmes that serve the community at large. It is one of the programmes that highlights the Bank’s keen interest in charitable activities, and the participation of SABB employees in extending a helping hand to needy families, through the provision of gifts that will allow them to celebrate this joyous occasion.

Local Equities Investment Awareness Campaign

In order to improve awareness of investing in the local equities market among Saudi investors, SABB has participated in organizing 27 investment awareness workshops, under the supervision of “Capital Market Authority”, to cover 14 cities in the Kingdom.

Fighting Money Laundering And Economic Crimes In The Kingdom

SABB participates in the training courses organized by SAMA to their honor the judges of The Ministry of Justice and The Bureau of Grievances about money laundering, and economic crimes.

SABB participation in this course underlines its commitment to the community and its extensive efforts to fight money-laundering crime, which adversely affects national and global economies.

Sponsoring The 3rd Educational Festival For Children with Special Needs

Within the framework of its community service programme, SABB has carried on projects of humanitarian nature, through its participation and sponsorship of the 3^rd Educational Festival For Children With Special Needs that was organized by the General Directorate of Special Education on 19 April 2007 in Riyadh.

Supporting Vocational Health and Safety Conference

SABB contributed in the support of the Vocational Health and Safety Conference that was organized by the General Organization for Social Insurance in Riyadh on 28 and 29 April 2007 as a Golden sponsor.

The goal of this event was to raise the awareness of the importance of vocational health and safety in the work environment as well as its requirements, in addition to the role of GOSI in this regard. Also the role of the different community sectors in contributing to publish the culture of vocational health and safety was emphasized, and latest technologies adopted worldwide were highlighted.

Sponsorship of Taiba Charitable Association’s Bazar

SABB sponsored Taiba Charitable Association Bazar that was held on 19 September 2006 in Jeddah. The Bazar is aimed at securing financial resources to help the kids at the Orphans’ village, and to assist in finishing the association’s building.

Supporting Down Syndrome Charitable Association

own’s Syndrome Charitable Association (DSCA) provides a group of integrated services to children who are suffering of Down’s syndrome. These services include medical care, speech and physical therapy. They also include preparation for education and mothers’ training.

SABB has participated in supporting DSCA by sponsoring 5 educational chairs, for a period of 3 years, commencing 2006.

Farasan Archeology Project

This research is a fully collaborative Saudi-British project with the full backing of Saudi and British institutions and authorities. The reaserch is supervised by professionals from the department of Antiquity and Archeology at King Saud University and the department of Archaeology at University of York in UK.

The project investigated the early archaeology and prehistory of the red sea coastline over the past 1 million years to understand the early developments in human history, especially that the red sea was an easy pathway for migration between Africa and the Eurasia.

The British Council Project: North-South-East-West

SABB sponsored the North-South-East-West Project organised by the British Council during November – December 2007. The event aimed to raise the awareness of the Saudi public about the climate changes and its impact on the environment and consequently on human lives. Amongst the activities of this event, a photography competition and a slogan competition for Saudi youth Kingdom wide were organised, in addition to an exhibition that was held in the Radisson SAS hotel - Riyadh.

SABB is a friend of the environment

To enhance its pioneering role as a friend to the environment and its pledge to protect it, SABB has introduced some initiatives to control his day-to-day operations and to bring environmental awareness to his staff.

As part of SABB commitment to ensure that our impact on the environment is reduced to minimum we applied international technical and constructional standards in building our head office extension. Following are some of the norms applied:

Installed floors containing recycled manufacturing materials

The de-watering will be used for flush tanks and irrigation in both buildings

All external glazing and walls have high insulation properties to reduce heat exchange

All lights are connected to timers via Building Management System to rationalize use

Re-used marble cladding removed from the old building for cladding the new head office cistern, hence saved fresh water

Installed infrared taps (motion detection) to save water

Installed extra fresh AHUs to pump extra cold air to the building during winter to save cooling by chillers hence save power.

Reduce paper waste

In line with the bank's commitment to preserve the environment, and to fast track SABB move towards a paper-less environment, following actions were taken:

Discontinue the process of printing and filing of some systems reports because these can be viewed and actioned electronically.
Set automatic double-side printing on printers wherever it's appropriate.
Discourage print out of internal correspondence and external as well.
Introduction of dry and wet waste bins to improve recycling of paper.
SABB has also designed Eid e-greeting cards to be used by different bank's departments/areas, to replace the traditional paper cards, and consequently assist in preserving the environment.
An internal staff awareness campaign was launched to reduce paper wastes, to save water consumption, to conserve energy and to reduce impact on climate changes.

Saving water

Changed water taps to infrared in SABB premises kingdom wide.
Adjusted automatic water taps at 5 seconds interval to reduce water consumption.
Usage of under ground water for toilets whenever possible.
Changed toilets flushing systems with lower water consumption system

Conserving energy

Replaced old monitors where applicable with LCD monitors.
Installed light sensors to schedule light switch off in SABB premises after end of working hours to avoid any excess consumption of power.

Combat climate change

Reduced staff business travel by using video conferencing for business meeting with our partners and vendours.
Implemented non-smoking policy in all SABB premises kingdom wide.