Account Opening Rules

Non-GCC Countries and Non-GCC, Non-Resident Government and Quasi-Government Entities, Except Hajj Missions Banks operating in Saudi Arabia shall not open bank accounts for non-GCC countries and non-GCC, non-resident government and quasi-government entities, except Hajj missions, unless official approval of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is granted and communicated to the bank through SAMA. Such approval shall indicate the name of the account, sources of funds, names of signatories and how to change them. Changing the signatories requires the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs unless the approval for opening the account as communicated through SAMA has clearly allowed changing such signatories by a specific person(s) or entity. The bank shall classify such accounts as of high risk. 600. Clearance Bank Accounts The bank may open clearance accounts, which are designated for those wishing to discharge their liability toward public funds. The following requirements shall be met: 1. The account shall be named “Clearance Account for (name of the concerned entity shall be specified here)”. 2. The account shall be valid for one year only. 3. The account shall be monitored by the bank’s compliance officer and shall be classified as of high risk. 4. The bank shall present to SAMA a detailed report of the account at the end of the year. 5. Before operating the account, the bank shall coordinate with the entity requesting such account to provide SAMA with the mechanism that will be used for announcing the account creation. 6. To withdraw funds from the account, the entity shall submit a request thereon to the bank. Such request shall be signed, and one of the signatories shall be the chairman of the entity. 7. The bank shall obtain the necessary documents required for opening such accounts, as per the requirements of the rules for opening bank accounts and subject to the classification of the entity. 8. The bank shall submit to SAMA all the aforementioned documents to receive its approval for opening the account. Chapter IV. General Rules for Operation of Bank Accounts 1. The bank account shall be operated originally by the account holder or other persons authorized by the account holder and approved by the bank. Where applied, the authorization remains valid until the account holder notifies the bank of its cancellation, it expires (after five years), or the authorized person’s ID expires and no renewed ID is presented to the bank. The authorization for operating and cancelling the bank account shall be granted through a power of attorney or an authorization letter prepared at the bank. E-services may be used to verify the authorization. 2. Saudi individuals (whether account holders or authorized to operate the account) are not allowed to operate bank accounts, encash personal checks, make transfers, or carry out any other credit transactions to their order or to the order of a third party unless their valid national IDs are registered in the bank’s automated system. The exceptions to this rule are customers of bank branches at airports, who are traveling abroad; in such case, the customer is required to present his/her passport and boarding pass, and the bank branch shall in turn check customer’s name against documents submitted. 3. The authorization to operate bank accounts on behalf of juristic entities shall be granted by competent individuals who are permitted to give such authorization. The official approval for such authorization shall be granted by the concerned public or private entity. The approval may come from the board of directors, the partners, the employer, any person designated by the owner (or the person in charge) of the entity, a party determined in the agreement concluded between the bank and the concerned entity, or other parties as per the jurisdiction. 4. Authorization by a Saudi (natural or juristic) person to a non-Saudi or non-GCC individual to manage his/her accounts shall be subject to the following