Opening a company bank account in Saudi Arabia
A bank here must open the account once the file is complete, and may not ask for a deposit to do it. We assemble that file and keep the deadlines that follow.
Residence permit due
Вид на жительство
90 days from opening
за 90 дней
Account left empty
Счёт остался пуст
closed at 90 days
закроют за 90 дней
Notice of freezing
Предупредят о блоке
at least 30 days
минимум за 30 дней
Records refreshed
Сведения обновляют
every 5 years
раз в 5 лет
When a Saudi company account is at risk
The bank asked for money first
The rules say the opposite: no sum may be demanded as a condition of opening, and a bank asking is asking outside them.
Three months passed with nothing paid in
An account that never received a deposit does not sit quietly waiting for the business to start.
The manager is here on a passport
That is allowed at the start and only at the start, and the residence permit has a date attached to it.
The licence lapsed while nobody looked
Freezing follows the expiry of the permission to trade, and a suspended register does not wait that long.
No residence here and no contract
Without a project or contract in the country, an ordinary operating account is not on the table.
What you get
- The investment licence and register lined up first
- Documents attested by the route the rules name
- Signing authority proved the way a bank checks
- Every deadline after opening put in a calendar
- A file refreshed before the bank asks for it
What a Saudi bank must have on file, and by when
The central bank writes the account rules here itself, in a document arranged by legal form: a limited liability company, a branch of a foreign corporation and an entity wholly owned by a foreign investor each get their own list. Two things run through all of them. A foreign-owned entity needs a licence from the investment ministry first, and the account, once opened, lives on deadlines that keep running.
The rest of our work in the kingdom is gathered on the Saudi Arabia page; if the company belongs to another jurisdiction, start from the account service itself.
What the rules give a company
A bank must agree to open an account for any customer where the required documents and conditions have been submitted and satisfied, and may not require the customer to deposit any amount as a condition of opening it. That instruction was last amended in September 2024, and it is unusually direct: once the file is complete, the decision is not left to appetite.
And what they take back at ninety days
The same paragraph closes the other way. Where no amount has been deposited within ninety days, the bank must close the account. It cannot be bought with a balance, and it cannot be parked empty either: a company opening one before it is ready to trade has three months to put something in.
The papers for an entity a foreign investor owns
The licence issued by the investment ministry comes first. Then the commercial register, accepted without the business licence attached, or the professional licence where the entity provides services; the memorandum or articles and annexes; identification for the manager in charge and for whoever will operate the account, with authority shown in the constitution or a decision of the board or partners. A power of attorney is notarised inside the kingdom, or embassy-attested or apostilled if issued abroad.
A branch of a foreign company adds two more
A branch supplies its home-country commercial register or professional licence with the parent's constitution, attested by the Saudi embassy there or carrying an apostille, plus a mandate from the head office naming who may sign for the company on bank matters inside the kingdom.
The clocks that run once the account is open
| What starts the count | What happens, and when |
|---|---|
| Opening on a passport alone | Residence permit due in 90 days |
| No deposit made into the account | Closed at 90 days |
| The trading permission expires | Frozen after 90 days |
| The commercial register is suspended | Frozen immediately |
| A freeze is coming | Notice at least 30 days ahead |
| Company records grow stale | Updated every 5 years at most |
A company that is not resident in the kingdom
No contract, no ordinary account
Banks may not open accounts for non-resident, non-Gulf companies with no contract or project here, apart from narrow intermediary arrangements.
With a contract, for as long as it lasts
An account may run for the length of the project, on ministry permission or a provisional investment licence, with a bank reference and attested authority.
After the project finishes
All such accounts close on expiry; a special one may remain only to settle receivables, payables and tax, classified as high risk.
Space leased in a port area
Accounts for companies licensed to sell and re-export from deposit areas run for the lease term and close unless a renewal is notified.
Sources: the duty to open without a deposit and the ninety-day closure — general instructions in the central bank's account opening rules; documents for foreign-owned entities — rule 300.1.4; freezing, notice and the five-year refresh — chapter II.
Stages of work
The investment licence, before the bank
For a foreign-owned entity the licence heads every document list in the rules, so it is checked against the activity the company actually intends to carry on.
The list that matches the legal form
A limited liability company, a branch and a wholly foreign-owned entity each get the papers their own paragraph names, not one set for all three.
Attestation by the route the rules name
Documents issued abroad go for embassy attestation or an apostille early: this is the step that adds weeks when it is discovered late.
Authority proved where it is read
Signing powers are traced to the constitution or a decision of the board or partners, and a representative's power of attorney is notarised on the correct side of the border.
The application, and the first deposit
Forms are answered from the verified records, and a first payment into the account is planned early, since an empty one has a closing date.
The calendar the account comes with
Residence permits, licence expiry, register status and the refresh of company records are put on dates, with a reminder before each.
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