RIYADH — The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has amended requirements to open bank accounts for e-commerce firms in a move aimed to speed up the process, the regulatory authority said in a statement. The new amendments will ease the procedure to open bank accounts for e-commerce businesses by removing the requirement of various licenses, the statement said. In addition, the new amendment will set one working day to open bank accounts that doesn't require approvals, and two working days for the ones that require approvals. Banks also should ensure that the accounts are used only for the purposes it has been opened for and in accordance with the licensed activity. For e-commerce businesses, which do not have headquarters, the new amendment states that the name of the account should reflect the trade license and indicate the purpose. SAMA announced the amendment of some articles as part of its supervisory and monitoring role on banks operating in the Kingdom so as to ensure that these banks take care of customers and to provide them services in a much easier and simpler way. The SAMA statement said that the new amendments included one to the rule on opening bank accounts for institutions engaged in e-commerce activity in order to promote these types of modern businesses. Also, the rule of opening bank accounts for resident companies has been amended by excluding the fulfillment of the licenses necessary to practice the activity when opening an account, based on the keenness of SAMA to provide bank services easily and conveniently, as well as to facilitate businesses in the Kingdom. SAMA stated that it decided to introduce a clause within rule 100 of the general instructions on opening bank accounts. The opening of account shall be undertaken within one day for those firms for which requirements do not include any special approvals from the concerned departments, and within two working days for those firms that require special approvals. It also referred to the amendment of Rule No. 3-1-300 for resident companies contained in the rules of bank accounts, excluding paragraph (2), which requires that the bank must be furnished with a copy of the license for companies whose activities include what requires a license. It is also to be ensured that the bank verifies that these accounts are used for the purposes for which they were opened. The amendments also included Rule No. 3-1-1-300 for e-commerce businesses, which have no official headquarters in the Kingdom so as to facilitate the opening of their bank accounts. The bank accounts will be opened for these establishments in accordance with the requirements of Rule No. 3-1-300 concerning licensed establishments and shops, with the condition that the account holder shall have a commercial registration in his name and the purpose of opening of the e-commerce account is specified. The bank should double check the e-portal through the concerned entities of the Ministry of Commerce and Investment, and to get the national address of the company or its owner.
