Saudi Arabia Tightens AML and Beneficial Ownership Rules

Saudi Arabia has shifted from designing corporate-transparency rules to enforcing them. The Ministry of Commerce’s Beneficial Owner Rules, issued on 26 November 2025, took effect in April 2026 alongside the Kingdom’s updated Commercial Registry System, requiring companies to identify, file, and maintain data on their ultimate beneficial owners. Weeks later, the Council of Ministers approved amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law.

Under the Beneficial Owner Rules, companies must identify their ultimate beneficial owner using a three-tier test, according to analyses by law firms Clyde & Co and Pinsent Masons. The first tier captures any individual holding 25% or more of a company’s capital, directly or indirectly. Where no such owner is clear, the test looks to any person exercising ultimate effective control by other means; failing that, it defaults to the company’s manager, board member, or chairman.

Companies must maintain a dedicated beneficial ownership register at their head office, confirm the information annually, and submit any changes to the Ministry through their Saudi Business Center account within 15 days, the same analysis notes. Filed data includes each owner’s name, nationality, identification or passport details, address, and a description of their ownership or control.

On 17 April 2026, the Council of Ministers approved amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law under Royal Decree M/20, according to law firm updates from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and CMS. A new Article 49 assigns the Permanent Committee for Combating Money Laundering responsibility for developing and periodically reviewing national risk-based AML policies, including assessments of high-risk countries. Enforcement of ownership and AML data is now reconciled across the Ministry of Commerce, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, and the Saudi Central Bank. The measures move the Kingdom closer to Financial Action Task Force standards on corporate ownership transparency.

The rules target a persistent gap in financial crime controls: institutions frequently verify the customer in front of them without confirming who ultimately owns or controls the entity behind an account. Layered ownership structures, nominee arrangements, and cross-border holding companies can obscure the individuals who actually benefit, allowing sanctioned or high-risk parties to sit one or two corporate layers out of view. A register is only as useful as the verification behind each filing; self-declared ownership data that is never checked does little to close that gap.

Institutions operating in Saudi Arabia now need to confirm not just who they onboard, but who ultimately owns and controls the business behind the account. That requires business verification that can map ownership structures, screen beneficial owners against sanctions and politically exposed person lists, and confirm the identities of the individuals named in a filing. Shufti’s Know Your Business solution combines corporate registry checks with beneficial ownership identification and AML screening across 240+ countries and territories, helping compliance teams trace ownership chains and flag high-risk owners at onboarding. Institutions adapting to the new filing regime can explore Shufti’s KYB capabilities or request a demo to see ownership verification in practice.