Saudi Securities Law Licensing

A short while ago, a Desi securities company named after a spice sought to sell its bespoke securities in Saudi Arabia without a license. A Chinese company was sure that operating manuals required by Saudi securities regulators could easily be found -- somewhere -- on the Internet. Neither company was interested in hiring advisors to put together a package which would be accepted by Saudi regulators. In the first instance, the Saudi regulator, the Capital Markets Authority, rejected the request to operate unlicensed out of hand. Instead, the CMA pointed the quaintly-named company in the direction of their published regulations and urged them to start the licensing process. The spice company reluctantly hired Arthur Andersin[1] and asked them to assemble the required documents. The problem was that Andersin did not have these documents either, so they came to me, as did the Chinese securities company when they came up empty-handed, despite using the latest Google search techniques. Andersin failed to tell me that the Desi securities company had not advanced funds for the task. I assumed--wrongly, as it turns out--that the spice company was a credit-worthy client of Andersin. What I did not know is that Andersin was so eager for business that they will basically take anyone who falls off a turnip truck.[2] The Chinese company was more direct. They told me that I was foolish, that the Authority could not possibly request so many guides and manuals and it would be easy to convince them. To this day, neither company has been successful in securing a license from the Authority. The spice company remains convinced that it should be able to sell its financial products in Saudi Arabia and a license is just all too much bother. The Chinese company, I suppose, is relying on ChatGPT and AI in its intensive, and so far, fruitless search. Rather than let the work I did in preparation for their applications languish, I decided to compile this book. Sources are templates in use in the Kingdom: I stand on the shoulders of giants. If you are interested in obtaining a Saudi securities license, that is, if you seek to qualify a Capital Markets Institution to engage in the securities business in Saudi Arabia, you will need manuals very much like these.

[1]. Not the real name of the accounting/consulting company.

[2]. Reference is to the first line of The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain.