Saleh Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi

Saleh bin Abdul-Aziz bin Saleh ibn Suleiman ibn Mohammed ibn Nasser Al Rajhi was born 1921 in Bakriyyah, Qassim, KSA. His father, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Rajhi was a farmer and trader of lesser means. After his father's move Riyadh to seek better business prospects, Saleh started his education under Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim. He completed the Quran and other studies by the age of 13 years old.[7]

In the early 1930s, Al Rajhi worked odd jobs at the local marketplace to earn money. Initially, he worked as a porter. Upon saving some money, Al Rajhi used it as capital to trade scrap items. He bought and sold keys, locks and haberdashery items, hawking the items in public places, particularly in the busy areas adjacent to the markets and mosques.

In 1937, as Al Rajhi turned 16 years old, he managed to occupy a space among the vendors and set up a "bastah" (a small trading place on the ground demarcated by a sheet or cloth spread upon which items are placed). He was first located in Safat, in front of the Grand Mosque in Riyadh. This involved breaking down Riyals into change – gursh and halalahs. For this he earned a commission of 5%.

As his business grew, he changed his bastah for a chest. This had kept his money in different denominations safe. Gradually, his customers started to bring in different currencies for him to change. Businessmen, pilgrims and travelers would exchange different monies from Indian Rupees to gold.[8]

In 1947, Al Rajhi opened a formal currency shop in Riyadh. He sent for his brothers, Mohammed and Sulaiman, to be a part of the business. Sulaiman, who later succeeded his brother as head of the family conglomerate, was a teenager then, hired for a salary of $10 to do exchange delivery and messenger jobs for the shop. The older Al Rajhi developed the systems and methods by which they recorded, traded and handled the money they received.

Toward the 1950s, Al Rajhi sent his brother Sulaiman to Mecca to conduct the exchange business for pilgrims and business people who had frequented the area. Sulaiman, with the blessing of his older brother remained in Mecca and further expanded to Jeddah which was growing economically at the time as well. The brothers conducted their currency business between the three branches for the next 25 years, which marked the beginnings Al-Rajhi Bank.

In 1957, the brothers formally established the beginnings of Al-Rajhi Bank. With Al Rajhi travelling to other countries in the region to initiate relationships with various banking institutions. He had also engaged in the first gold trade with Kuwait. Aside from this, Al Rajhi also established a unique system of drafts and money transfers. Eventually, he was able to connect to United States banks through his established reputation in the Middle East. By the 1960s, the Al Rajhis were banking in most of the major financial sectors across Europe and Asia.

In the 1990s Al-Rajhi turned over the reins of the heading the Al Rajhi Bank to focus on real estate and agriculture. His ventures in these two sectors eventually became some of the most successful in KSA. Aside from these, Al Rajhi held stakes in another financial of import Al Baraka Banking Group and shares in cement and construction ventures.

Aside from the main business of currency exchange and banking, Saleh Al Rajhi held various positions in other companies with the following designations:

• Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi
• Al Rajhi Bank