Account Opening Rules

Annual Statistical Reports Required by SAMA Banks shall submit an annual report to SAMA at the end of March in accordance with the schedule sent by SAMA. The report shall cover all unclaimed and abandoned accounts, including the nature, type and number of the account as of the end of December of the previous year, without disclosing any personal information. 6. Application of KYC Principle and AML/CFT Requirements - Banks shall fully apply the KYC principle, provided that the primary purpose of the application is for the bank to be fully aware and have a complete picture of the customer and the nature of his/her activities and transactions, prior to or during the business relationship or the process of opening the account, or prior to carrying out a transaction to a customer with whom it has no business relationship, by assessing the risks that the customer may impose on the bank and the level of such risks. The identification of customers and assessment of risks shall be made while ensuring the fulfillment of all statutory requirements of opening accounts or starting business relationship. - Banks shall establish, define, review and update the necessary procedures for the application of the KYC principle in accordance with the relative significance and degree of risk assessment made by the bank. - Banks shall ensure that staff has the experience and training required to identify and assess the customer’s level of risks. - These Rules shall be read in conjunction with the requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering Law and its Implementing Regulations , the Law on Terrorism Crimes and Financing and the Guidelines issued thereunder. - The Compliance Department shall have the authority and right to timely access the customer identification data, due diligence information, transaction records and other relevant data. 7. Curators, Legal Agents, Custodians and Authorized Persons (Natural or Juristic) Banks shall ascertain the nature of the relationship for natural curators, legal agents, custodians and authorized persons when opening accounts and check the validity of the documents submitted. 8. On-Going Monitoring of Accounts and Transactions - Without prejudice to the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Law and its Implementing Regulations , the Law on Terrorism Crimes and Financing and the Guidelines issued thereunder, Banks should have appropriate systems in place to monitor the customer’s transactions and activities and identify any suspicious or wrong behavior. Manual transaction monitoring is not sufficient and banks shall invest in developing electronic systems in accordance with the best standards in monitoring and information security and protection to continuously monitor customers’ transactions. - Banks shall continuously assess internal risk-based controls in order to benefit from unusual activities that have been detected. - The electronic systems used in banks should be suitable for the nature of the bank's risk profile, and the monitoring system should be integrated with the bank's core systems. In case of incompatibility between the two systems due to integration, the bank shall be prepared to take the necessary precautions and manual procedures to address the incompatibility. - If the bank suspects that banking accounts are being used illegally or that the source of the money deposited is found to be earned from illegal business, the bank must notify the Saudi Arabia Financial Investigation Unit of such case. 9. Training as a Key Principle for these Rules - Banks should not assign any teller or customer service staff before attending courses on KYC, AML/CFT measures, and ethical and professional behavior of bankers. - Banks should put in place continued training programs to provide on-job training to employees in these areas. Banks should include extensive training on the contents of these Rules and their applications in their training programs. 10. Disclosure of and Enforcement on Bank Accounts, Balances and Relationships - Subject to SAMA’s instructions on providing government and non-government entities with documents, information and data of customer bank accounts , the disclosure of and enforcement on bank balances, accounts and relationships (such as, blocking and compulsory deduction) shall be made by an order from SAMA upon the request of the competent authorities. - Enforcement on banking relationships means blocking, compulsory deduction, check issuance and money transfer from the bank's customer accounts. - Procedures taken for the disclosure of and enforcement on bank balances, accounts and relationships at all stages shall be strictly confidential. Such requests shall be received only by SAMA except for cases stated in SAMA’s instructions. - Banks shall carry out requests for disclosure and enforcement according to the form, manner and period specified by SAMA.