MAIL-IT REQUESTED: SEPTEMBER 10, 1993                       104QDG

                 National Thrift News, Inc.                               
National Mortgage News

                                 April 1, 1991

SECTION: Pg. 17

LENGTH: 321 words

HEADLINE: Pharaon's Links to BCCI

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

 BODY:    The relationship between Saudi businessman                             
The Economist

                               November 21, 1981

SECTION: World politics and current affairs; Middle East Banking: a 
survey; SURVEY Pg. 20 (U.S. Edition SURVEY Pg. 20)

LENGTH:  270 words

HEADLINE: Own your own bank

 HIGHLIGHT:    The oil states of the Middle East have left most of their 
new-found wealth with western banks, which have made hefty profits 
lending it on to others. The Arabs would like to keep more of these 
profits for themselves. This survey, written by Peter Truell and edited 
by Tim Hindle, suggests that there is more to banking than being close to 
rich deposits.

 BODY:    Some private Arab investors have taken a shine to western 
banks. Perhaps the most enthusiastic is Suleiman Olayan, Bechtel's 
61-year-old partner in Saudi Arabia, credited with introducing insurance 
to the kingdom. Reputedly one of the richest men in the world, his bank 
holdings make those of the better-known Adnan Khashoggi look like 
minnows.

   His biggest stake is a 7.5% share in America's tenth largest bank, 
First National Bank of Chicago. He also holds ''around 1%'' of Chase 
Manhattan, Mellon Bank, Bankers Trust and four or five other less 
well-known but large American banks. He hired Mr William Simon, 
ex-treasury secretary, to run his investment company, Crescent 
Diversified, at a salary reputed to be around $1m a year. Suleiman Olayan 
is also chairman of Saudi British Bank and is on Morgan Guaranty's 
international board.

   Other big Saudi investors in foreign banks include Kamal Adham, former 
head of Saudi intelligence and largest shareholder in the recently 
acquired American multistate bank-holding company, Financial General 
Bancshares. He has a large stake in Allied Arab Bank in London and 1.8% 
of the Luxembourg-registered multinational Bank of Credit and Commerce 
International (BCCI).

   Khalid Bin Mahfouz, son of the founder of National Commercial Bank of 
Saudi Arabia, has a majority share in the  Main Bank of Houston.  Ghaith 
Pharaon, multi-millionaire owner of the Redec group of companies who 
recently bought into the Club Mediterannee holiday villages, controls the 
National Bank of Georgia, and also, in 1980, owned 10.6% of BCCI.

GRAPHIC: Survey cover photo, A foot in the door: A survey of banking in 
the Middle East


                                                                       
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