Leading business position and improving geographic diversification. Strong capitalization, supported by sound pre-provision earnings capacity. High likelihood that the Saudi Arabian government will provide extraordinary support in the event of financial distress. Concentration risks in the lending book. Increasing credit risks stemming from expanding operations in Turkey. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' negative outlook on The National Commercial Bank (NCB) primarily reflects the outlook on the sovereign ratings as well as our view of negative economic and industry risk trends. We could downgrade the bank in the next 24 months if we were to downgrade Saudi Arabia further, assuming other factors remain unchanged. Furthermore, we could downgrade the bank if we see heightened economic risks in the system and if
