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2021-04-25

Creation of a Post Dedicated to Combating Commercial Concealment and Analyzing and Reporting Suspected Cases

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has established a dedicated post under the Director of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing to combat commercial concealment, analyze suspected cases, and report them. The circular mandates that banks allocate necessary human, financial, technical, and logistical resources to this post by the end of Q2 2021. Furthermore, institutions must implement targeted policies and procedures—including enhanced technical systems, account monitoring scenarios, staff training, product evaluation, internal reporting, and secure communication with the General Directorate of Financial Investigations—and submit their adopted frameworks to SAMA via email.

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Saudi Arabia

Saudi Central Bank

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[Saudi Central Bank Logo]

Reference No.: 42064692 Date: 1442/09/13 Attachments: None

Circular

To: Distinguished Banks and Institutions, Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you,

Subject: Creation of a Post Dedicated to Combating Commercial Concealment and Analyzing and Reporting Suspected Cases.

In light of the Saudi Central Bank's supervisory and regulatory role, and its commitment to protecting the financial sector and its reputation from misuse in money laundering or terrorist financing operations, or related primary crimes including commercial concealment, and based on the powers granted to the Bank under Article 24 of the Anti-Money Laundering System issued by Royal Decree No. (M/20) dated 1439/2/5 AH, and Article 82 of the Anti-Terrorism Crimes and Financing System issued by Royal Decree No. (M/21) dated 1439/2/12 AH, and the gracious High Directive to establish a ministerial committee in August 2020 responsible for overseeing the National Program for Combating Commercial Concealment,

please be informed that a specialized post for combating commercial concealment has been established, reporting to the Director of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, responsible for analyzing suspected commercial concealment cases and reporting them, taking into account the following:

  1. Supporting the commercial concealment post with all necessary resources (human, financial, technical, logistical) to execute its duties optimally.
  2. Assigning the commercial concealment post to individuals with expertise and competence in combating commercial concealment, money laundering, and terrorist financing.
  3. Establishing the necessary policies and procedures for combating commercial concealment and related reporting operations, which shall include the following: a. Developing technical systems to include the detection of suspected commercial concealment crimes. b. Creating and developing account monitoring scenarios to include commercial concealment. c. Including training and awareness materials regarding the detection of commercial concealment and training bank staff on them. d. Evaluating products, services, and channels that may be exploited in commercial concealment operations. e. Issuing and following up on internal monitoring reports related to commercial concealment crimes. f. Working to create secure communication channels between the Bank and the General Directorate of Financial Investigations under the National Security Administration, to assist in monitoring, surveillance, and reporting operations related to suspected commercial concealment.

For your information, action is required in accordance with this circular before the end of the second quarter of this year (2021), and providing the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Department with the adopted policies and procedures regarding this matter via the following email: (AML-CTF@SAMA.GOV.SA).

Yours sincerely,

Fahd bin Ibrahim Al-Shathri Deputy Governor for Supervision

[Saudi Central Bank Logo]

Distribution Scope:

  • Banks and financial institutions operating in the Kingdom.

P.O. Box 2992, Riyadh 11169, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Tel: +966 11 463 466

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