Al Rajhi vs Riyad Bank: How Their Bank Statements Compare
Both Saudi banks were founded in 1957. One is fully Islamic, the other conventional. Here's what that means for the PDF you upload.
Al Rajhi Bank
Saudi Arabia
Al Rajhi Bank is the world's largest Islamic bank by assets and one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent financial institutions. Founded in 1957, it offers Sharia-compliant banking products to millions of customers across the Kingdom and beyond. Its PDF statements are clearly structured with transaction dates, descriptions, and running balances.
Riyad Bank
Saudi Arabia
Riyad Bank is one of the oldest and largest commercial banks in Saudi Arabia, established in 1957. It provides a comprehensive range of corporate, retail, and investment banking services. Riyad Bank's PDF statements are professionally formatted with detailed transaction records and account summaries.
Same founding year, opposite banking philosophies
Al Rajhi (1957) is the default bank for Saudis who prioritise Sharia compliance — 11M+ customers, 590 branches, every product structured as Murabaha, Tawarruq, or Wakala. Riyad Bank (also 1957) is conventional with an Islamic window. It is particularly strong in government-linked corporate banking and trade finance, with a retail base of around 5M customers and 340 branches.
The customer profile shapes the statement. Al Rajhi accounts are dominated by Islamic-finance lines. Riyad Bank accounts mix conventional interest income ('فائدة') with Islamic-window financing ('قسط تمويل') depending on the products held. The same customer never sees both shapes in one PDF.
How the PDFs differ in practice
Riyad Bank statements often open with a summary page: opening and closing balances, period totals, and an average monthly balance. Al Rajhi PDFs typically launch straight into the transaction table — no preamble. If your parser is configured for Al Rajhi, the first 1-2 pages of a Riyad Bank statement may be skipped as a header block.
Both list a Date column in DD/MM/YYYY and a SAR running balance, but Riyad Bank's description column carries Arabic and English side by side on every row, while Al Rajhi keeps Arabic primary with an optional secondary line. Riyad Bank also surfaces RTGS (high-value gross settlement) transfers as a distinct label — Al Rajhi groups all wires under 'حوالة'.
What this means for your conversion
If you bank with both, your Al Rajhi export will lean heavier on Murabaha installments and Sarie transfers. Your Riyad Bank export will include a separate 'قسط تمويل' line that may represent either conventional or Islamic-window financing — check the product description before mapping it to a liability account. Mada POS lines are identical in both.
For period reconciliation, Riyad Bank's summary page gives you closing-balance and average-balance figures that Al Rajhi does not print. The CSV from either bank preserves the running balance column so you can verify period totals manually if needed.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Al Rajhi Bank | Riyad Bank |
|---|---|---|
| Country | Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia |
| Region | MENA | MENA |
| Currencies | SAR | SAR |
| Sharia-Compliant | Yes | — |
Statement Features
Al Rajhi Bank
- Structured tabular layout with clear debit/credit columns and running balance
- Transaction descriptions in both Arabic and English on the same statement
- Monthly summary section with opening and closing balance totals
- IBAN and account details printed in the statement header for easy reference
Riyad Bank
- Multi-column transaction layout with value dates and posting dates distinguished
- Cheque reference numbers and POS terminal codes included in descriptions
- Foreign exchange transactions shown with both original and SAR-equivalent amounts
- Account holder details and branch information printed in the header
Currency Coverage
Both Banks
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is easier to convert?
Al Rajhi statements are slightly more predictable because they start with the transaction table on page 1. Riyad Bank's summary page can confuse naive parsers, but our extraction skips the header block automatically. Both produce clean CSVs.
Why does my Riyad Bank statement show an average balance and Al Rajhi does not?
Riyad Bank prints a summary section with opening/closing balances and a monthly average. Al Rajhi statements omit this and start straight at the transactions. If you need the average for an Al Rajhi account, calculate it from the running balance column in the CSV.
Do both banks use the same WPS salary label?
Yes. Both Al Rajhi and Riyad Bank credit salaries via the Wage Protection System with the Arabic label 'راتب'. The deposit method and naming are identical — what differs is the surrounding context (Murabaha installments at Al Rajhi vs conventional finance lines at Riyad Bank).
How are RTGS transfers shown differently?
Riyad Bank labels high-value gross settlement transfers explicitly as 'RTGS'. Al Rajhi groups these under the generic 'حوالة' label without distinguishing settlement type. If you need to flag large interbank transfers separately, the Riyad Bank export does that work for you.
Convert Either Statement Now
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