Dear Esteemed Chamber Subscribers,
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you.
Asharqia Chamber extends its warmest greetings to you and would like to inform you that it has received the letter of the Federation of Saudi Chambers No. (45551986/20), dated (24/1/1448 AH), referring to the telegram received from the Ministry of Commerce No. (1241), dated (17 Muharram 1448 AH)
corresponding to (July 1, 2026), attached to the Anti-Money Laundering Law issued by Royal Decree No. (M/20), dated (5 Safar 1439 AH), and its Implementing Regulations, and the obligation set out in Article (15) on designated non-financial businesses and professions, upon suspicion or the existence of reasonable grounds for suspicion, to report immediately and directly to the General Directorate of Financial Intelligence and provide it with a detailed report containing all the available data and information on the transaction and the related parties, in addition to responding to the Directorate’s requests for additional information.
The Ministry of Commerce advises that, through coordination with the General Directorate of Financial Intelligence as part of measuring the quality of suspicious transaction reports submitted by those practicing the precious metals and stones dealing activity, it has become apparent that there are incorrect practices, manifested in some dealers submitting suspicious transaction reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit without reasonable grounds for suspicion. The Ministry has previously published a guidance manual for dealers in precious metals and stones on the requirements for combating money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing, which includes a number of warning indicators that can be used as guidance when evaluating transactions and submitting suspicious transaction reports.
Accordingly, the Federation hopes that dealers in precious metals and stones will adhere to the requirement to submit suspicious transaction reports to the General Directorate of Financial Intelligence whenever indicators or reasonable grounds for suspicion exist, provided that the reporting of suspicious transactions is based on reasonable indicators of suspicion.
Please accept our sincere regards and appreciation.