Bank AlJazira was established as a Saudi joint-stock corporation under Royal Decree in June 1975, formally commencing commercial operations in October 1976 after acquiring the existing branches of the National Bank of Pakistan within the kingdom. During its initial decades, it operated as a conventional joint-venture bank. However, in 1998, the board initiated a historic structural transformation to convert all operations to Islamic banking principles, completing the full transition into a 100% Sharia-compliant financial institution by 2007.