Saudi regulator opens consultation on foreign-market trading rules

Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority has opened consultation on proposed rules for local market institutions that execute trades for clients in foreign financial markets. The draft would require firms to assess whether a client is suited to trade in overseas markets judged comparable to Saudi Arabia’s main equities or listed debt markets before the relationship begins, then reassess only if the client’s circumstances materially change. It also sets tighter terms for margin trading, where investors borrow to enlarge a position: clients would need to provide at least 50% of a trade’s value, while firms would monitor that coverage and could not arrange such trades in highly leveraged instruments or certain deeply loss-making companies. The practical shift is clearer local investor-protection rules around broker-arranged access to overseas markets; comments run through October 27, and the authority intends the final rules to take effect on November 1.