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Saudi banks to monitor expat account incomes in proportion to salaries
| Published: | 22 Sep at 6 PM |
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In a move designed to trace foreign workers with unofficial as well as officially permitted jobs, Saudi banks will now begin monitoring expat bank accounts for unexplained income.
The move is aimed at expat workers in the kingdom who are receiving salaries for a permitted job and are also operating businesses on the side. It’s also expected that a crackdown on unofficial businesses will help stem the flow of overseas remittances leaving the country.
According to Saudi’s Media and Banking Awareness Committee’s secretary general, Talaat Hafiz, the new banking rules will ban expats without permission to work from opening bank accounts in the kingdom. The banks will also extend their ‘know your client’ strategies as well as monitoring foreigners’ transactions to ensure any transfers are relevant to client salaries.
Hafiz stated that banks suspecting irregularities will request police investigations into the client’s financial status and activities. Millions of requests for new accounts from foreigners working in the private sector have been received by Saudi banks.
At the same time, expats from the USA working in Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas industries are concerned about being able to keep their local bank accounts open due to the problems caused by America’s new tax laws. Although aimed at American nationals resident in the home country, the unintended consequences of FATCA now include an increasing number of closures of international bank accounts held by US expats living or working overseas.
The move is aimed at expat workers in the kingdom who are receiving salaries for a permitted job and are also operating businesses on the side. It’s also expected that a crackdown on unofficial businesses will help stem the flow of overseas remittances leaving the country.
According to Saudi’s Media and Banking Awareness Committee’s secretary general, Talaat Hafiz, the new banking rules will ban expats without permission to work from opening bank accounts in the kingdom. The banks will also extend their ‘know your client’ strategies as well as monitoring foreigners’ transactions to ensure any transfers are relevant to client salaries.
Hafiz stated that banks suspecting irregularities will request police investigations into the client’s financial status and activities. Millions of requests for new accounts from foreigners working in the private sector have been received by Saudi banks.
At the same time, expats from the USA working in Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas industries are concerned about being able to keep their local bank accounts open due to the problems caused by America’s new tax laws. Although aimed at American nationals resident in the home country, the unintended consequences of FATCA now include an increasing number of closures of international bank accounts held by US expats living or working overseas.
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