Country Manuals Private Banking –
Dear Client,
We would like to inform you that BRP has updated its COUNTRY MANUAL PRIVATE BANKING for the following jurisdiction:
- SAUDI ARABIA OUT OF BANK’S COUNTRY OF ESTABLISHMENT (Def, RS, BT & RT)
| SOURCE OF CHANGES | ANSWERS |
|---|---|
| Law / Regulation | YES |
| New Position of the Authorities | YES |
| Evolution of Expert’s interpretation | NO |
Regulatory Template, Regulatory Summary and Behaviour Template
Material changes
The Country Manual has been reviewed to ensure that the content of all the documents remains accurate and up-to-date.
Some amendments have been made in order to reflect the following:
- Futher to an amendment to the Securities Business Regulations, Institutions are not in the scope of the exemption for advertising anymore. Only advertising directed at Capital Market Institutions or Exempt Persons is now exempt.
- In March 2022, Saudi’s new legislation on Data protection, the Personal Data Protection Law (“PDPL”), became effective. The Law sets out requirements analogous to the ones contained in the EU’s GDPR. The PDPL is in effect from March 2022, but Data Controllers (as defined in the PDPL) have another year to comply with it.
Non-material changes
Some comments/conditions have been reworded and further non-material changes have been made throughout the documents.
The Manual also now reflects that pursuant to the Company Law, any activity should only take place within Saudi Arabia on a limited and occasional basis, in order to limit the risk of being considered as having a permanent establishment in Saudi Arabia. As per the Foreign Investment Law, a foreign entity may not engage in business activities within Saudi Arabia without appropriate approvals from the Ministry of Investment.
Implications for business relations with third parties
Some answers have been added and adapted in the section regarding business relations with third parties.
With respect to the provision of documentation to the EAM (such as documentation on the Bank’s banking and investment services, investment research, and financial analysis or recommendation lists), our Country Manual now distinguishes between the provision to the EAM for remittance to the end client on one hand and the provision to the EAM for the EAM’s own professional purposes on the other hand. The answers have been amended accordingly.
Regulatory Summary
This document has now a more user-friendly layout and reflects the changes contained in the RT.
BT Short Comparison
BRP has created a comparison document allowing users to quickly identify the modifications made compared to the previous version of the PB Manual (BT Short Comparison). The BT Short Comparison can be found on BRP’s platform (mybrponline) in the Search tab by entering in the Document Field “CM PB BT SHORT COMP” and “SAUDI ARABIA” in the Target Country Field.
The BT Short Comparison should be read as follows:
The first column contains a short description of the activity in question. The second column contains the answers of the previous version of the Country Manual (online until the day of the alert). The third column contains the new answers of the most recent version of the Country Manual. Only the modified answers are displayed (in color). If the answers in the new version are unchanged compared to the previous version, they are shaded in grey.
For more information, please contact us: info@brpsa.com
Best regards,