Barclays Opens Riyadh Office and Names Majed Al Hassoun to Lead Saudi Unit

Barclays has opened an office in Riyadh's King Abdullah Financial District and appointed Majed Al Hassoun as chief executive of Barclays Capital Saudi, setting out both moves in a statement dated November 9 and announcing them on Monday.

Al Hassoun takes the twin roles of chief executive and head of investment banking at the local entity. He is responsible for running the Saudi business and for its relationships with corporate, government and institutional clients. He arrives from State Street Saudi Arabia, where he was chief executive, and has held senior investment banking positions at Citigroup and Saudi Fransi Capital. Barclays put his industry experience at about 20 years.

Mohammed Al Sarhan will chair the entity's board as independent non-executive chairman, with Talal AlKhereiji joining as an independent non-executive director. Abdulaziz Abdulrahman A. Alshenaifi becomes head of markets, Abdullah AlToukhi head of institutional coverage, Susheel Jain chief financial officer and Abdulrahman Alanazi head of compliance and money laundering reporting officer.

Al Hassoun reports to Khaled El Dabag, who heads Barclays' regional headquarters and serves as co-CEO and head of investment banking for the Middle East. The Middle East franchise is led by El Dabag and Walid Mezher as co-CEOs.

The Riyadh office is meant to extend Barclays' investment banking and global markets business in the kingdom. It will connect Saudi companies, government bodies and institutional investors to international advisory, financing and capital markets services. Barclays framed the expansion as part of its wider Middle East strategy. Saudi Arabia is developing its financial markets under Vision 2030, a programme that has pulled international banks into the country.

C. S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays Group chief executive, said the Riyadh opening strengthens the bank's ability to support Saudi clients through its global operations.

Two regulatory steps sit behind the launch. Barclays obtained a Regional Headquarters licence in 2025, and Barclays Capital Saudi was authorised to undertake regulated securities activities. On November 1 the Capital Market Authority said the unit had completed the requirements to begin arranging and advising, an authorisation dated October 26, 2025. The regulator's register of financial institutions also lists Barclays Capital Saudi as licensed for dealing, though that activity had not begun when the November 1 update was published.

The opening is a further stage in Barclays' return to the Saudi market. The Capital Market Authority approved the cancellation of the securities authorisation held by the bank's earlier Saudi subsidiary in June 2014. Barclays has operated in the Middle East and North Africa for more than 150 years and serves corporate, institutional and private wealth clients across the region.

For Barclays the licence amounts to more than one office. A regulated local entity lets Saudi advisory and financing mandates be staffed and booked in Riyadh rather than routed through another hub, and it gives the bank a standing presence while the kingdom builds out its capital markets. Competition for those mandates among international banks has sharpened.