Saudi Arabia's largest lender, National Commercial Bank, has picked four banks to arrange a local currency sukuk that will boost its capital, a document from lead managers said on Thursday.

NCB had mandated itself as well as the investment banking arm of Gulf International Bank and the Saudi Arabian units of HSBC and JP Morgan to arrange the transaction.

The sukuk will enhance the bank's Tier 2 - or supplementary - capital and will have a ten-year lifespan with an option of the bank redeeming the instrument after five years.

The size of the issue has yet to be determined.

NCB's chairman was quoted in October as saying the bank was planning to issue a capital-boosting sukuk worth up to 4 billion riyals ($1.07 billion). - Reuters