RIYADH — The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has issued a royal order for the Ministry of Justice to lay down the controls to curb the practice of unlicensed financing activities, in line with the financing companies monitoring regulation, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said Saturday. This will ensure monitoring of violators, expediting their trials and meting out the penalties issued against them in line with the regulations. In turn, this will protect the economy and exploiting the needs of the general public by financing them using illegal methods. The Minister of Justice Sheikh Dr. Waleed Al-Samaani, who is also the chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, has confirmed that the new controls would curb the practice of financing by unlicensed persons. This will contribute to putting an end to exploiting insolvent debtors by financing them using illegal methods that do not take into consideration the debtor's credit status and his capability to fulfill his commitments. Hence, he is caused to bear great burdens due to financing that is not subject to monitoring, supervision and control by the authorities responsible for supervising financing companies. This leads the debtor to be incapable of fulfilling his commitments. Al-Samaani further said that the royal order would ensure setting up an electronic link with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) to implement the order, and lay down the necessary mechanisms and arrangements via a partnership between the two authorities. It is noteworthy that Article Four of the Regulation for Monitoring Financing Companies bans practicing any of the financing activities specified in the regulation, unless the entity obtains a license in line with the rules of this regulation or the other regulations in force. It is banned for any unlicensed person to practice a financing activity mentioned in the regulation. Therefore, he/she cannot use in any document, paper, or advertisement any word or expression giving the impression that the financing activity is licensed. In addition, Paragraph Two of Article 35 of the regulation mentions the penalty for violating the regulation.
