Arab Bank

About the Founder

Abdulhameed Shoman was born around 1890 in Beit Hanina, a village near Jerusalem, Palestine, during Ottoman rule.^[6] His father was a sheep dealer, and the family owned a mountain quarry from which they extracted and sold stone.^[7] The youngest of four boys—Issa, Musa, and Yusuf—, Abdulhameed left Quranic school around age seven and began working with his brother Musa in construction sites in Jerusalem.^[8] After marrying his first wife, Abdulhameed emigrated to New York City in 1911 despite his parents’ disapproval. Dreaming of becoming an American national, he arrived in New York with only 32 Palestinian pounds, no knowledge of English, and minimal Arabic reading and writing skills. A year later, Abdulhameed’s wife gave birth to their first son, Abdulmajeed Shoman. She died when Abdulmajeed was one, and he was then raised by his grandmother in Palestine.^[9]

Founding Story

Soon after his arrival, Abdulhameed met a man named Hanna Hishma who offered him a job as a salesman in Pittsburgh. Though hesitant to leave New York, he made the move.^[10] He struggled financially, with the language, and with homesickness, but ultimately persevered.^[11] After accumulating $2,000, he went to Buffalo where he found two brothers from his village, Ali and Mish’al, who used to work at the Shoman quarry. Abdulhameed began working with them, and his earnings increased as his experience grew.^[12] He next moved to Baltimore, where he organized a group of Syrian peddlers, and managed finances for 60 of them, eventually dominating the city’s peddling trade. Confident in his strategy, he moved back to New York with a $20,000 check.^[13] He opened a store, which by 1918 was reaping a significant profit.^[14] That same year, he attempted to open an Arab-focused bank and amass capital from wealthy Arabs, but failed.^[15] In New York, he also purchased a cemetery for Muslims and started publishing an Arabic newspaper, Al-Dabbur, which led fundraising campaigns for national movements in Palestine and Syria. The newspaper was later shut down due to management issues.^[16]

Abdulhameed spent almost twenty years in New York City, from 1911 to 1929. During this era, New York City was emerging as the world’s financial capital, experiencing rapid economic expansion and a booming stock market that attracted investors from around the globe.^[17] Having grown up under Ottoman rule and later British mandate, Abdulhameed sought to establish financial institutions that would empower the Arab world and help it resist foreign dominance. He envisioned the creation of a bank that would contribute to uniting Arab nations and drive growth in the Arab world.

In 1926, Abdulmajeed was reunited with his father when the 14-year-old traveled to New York City to pursue his secondary education.^[18] In 1929, amid the Great Depression, Abdulhameed returned home after 18 years abroad, leaving his cousin and a trusted employee in charge of his store.^[19] Back in Palestine, he married Saniyya Ahmed Helmy Abd al-Baqi and had two children with her, Najwa and Khalid.^[20]

Relocating to Cairo, Abdulhameed unsuccessfully proposed a joint Egyptian-Palestinian bank to Talat Pasha Harb, chairman of the Bank of Egypt.^[21] Then, in 1930, he was finally able to establish the Arab Bank in Jerusalem, serving as its first chairman.^[22] With 15,000 Palestinian pounds,^[23] along with financial and managerial support from his father-in-law, Ahmed Helmy Abd al-Baqi, operations began on July 14.^[24] The name ‘Arab Bank’ held deep significance for Abdulhameed, as he explained: “I did not wish to name it after myself, my village Beit Hanina, or my homeland Palestine, but after the Arab nation, the greater homeland.”^[25] His father-in-law soon stepped away to launch his own agricultural bank.^[26] The registration of the Arab Bank initially faced opposition, particularly from the registrar of commercial companies, which objected to an article in the bank’s by-laws that allowed it to buy, sell, and mortgage land. Eventually overcoming that hurdle, in 1934, Abdulhameed visited Amman and was inspired to open a branch there.^[27]

Growth Phase

Abdulhameed was deeply involved in the Palestinian national movement, participating in many committees and councils. Despite his vocal opposition to British rule, he was able to keep his business running until 1936, when his outspokenness led to his arrest and detainment at the Sarafand camp near Ramleh for several months. Two years later, he was once again arrested and detained at the Mazra‘a camp near Akka.^[28] While he was in detention, his son Abdulmajeed took over and managed the bank, modernizing operations.^[29] During the 1948 Nakba, after the British Mandate Authority’s withdrawal, the bank lost its branches in Yaffa and Haifa as customers withdrew their deposits en masse. While some branches were reestablished in and outside of Palestine, the bank ultimately had to relocate its headquarters in 1948 to Amman, where it remains today.^[30]

The Arab Bank expanded extensively during the 1950s, establishing 43 branches across the Arab world. The bank also invested in multiple industries, aiming to drive economic development in the Arab world, and provided financial assistance for hundreds of Arab students to study in the West.^[31]

As many Arab countries gained independence from British and French colonial rule in the 1960s, some began nationalizing private businesses and banks. Starting in 1961, the Arab Bank’s branches in Syria and Egypt were nationalized, followed by a branch in Iraq in 1964. Additional closures occurred after the 6-Day War in 1967, following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In 1969 and 1970, the bank’s branches in Yemen, Sudan, and Libya were also nationalized. Across the decade, the Arab Bank lost a total of 25 branches.^[32]

The Arab Bank focused on international expansion throughout this unstable period. In 1961, its first overseas location opened in Switzerland. The following year, it established a sister institution, Arab Bank Switzerland, in Zurich, which was followed by a branch in Geneva.^[33]

The bank continued to expand operations throughout the Gulf in the 1970s, and grew their presence in Jordan. It also opened branches in cities such as Frankfurt, London, Sydney, New York, and Singapore.^[34]

Abdulhameed died in 1974, and his son Abdulmajeed Shoman became chairman and general manager. In 1978, the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation was established by the Arab Bank on Abdulmajeed’s initiative to fulfill his father’s wish to foster scientific, intellectual, medical, and technological research in the Arab world. The foundation is still in operation, offering grants and scholarships.^[35]

Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Arab Bank returned to the Palestinian territories, establishing branches in several towns.^[36] The bank returned to Syria in 2005; the next year, it established Europe Arab Bank, a London-based, fully-owned subsidiary.^[37] Later in 2006, Abdulmajeed Shoman died, and Abdulhameed Shoman, the founder’s grandson, became chairman.^[38]

 Today

As of 2012, the Arab Bank was no longer family-owned.^[39] Abdulhameed Shoman, from the family’s third generation, resigned following disagreements over institutional leadership.^[40] Today, the Arab Bank is one of the largest Arab banking networks, with over 600 branches in more than 25 countries.^[41]