Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has instructed all local banks and financial institutions to ensure prompt transactions in the disbursement of salaries and financial support deposited by companies and establishments to their employees without any delay.

In a circular sent to banks and financial institutions, a copy of which was obtained by Okaz, SAMA has issued seven directives to prevent delays in salaries and financial support. The Central Bank has outlined the mechanisms and procedures for depositing and transferring financial support and salaries to employees in various sectors, thus ensuring these transactions are completed on time without delay.

The circular emphasizes the local banks' obligation to comply with the recently issued directives, which include the following seven points: Deposit and transfer salaries and financial support received from various entities, including government salaries received through the Central Bank, immediately upon completion of the necessary data.

Ensure the availability of qualified human resources and the required technical resources. Enhance the readiness of systems monitoring, both technically and operationally, during the salary and financial support deposit and transfer processes, to take necessary measures and develop alternative plans to ensure timely deposits in case of any technical issues.

The SAMA also instructed to conduct necessary assessments for any changes or operations on the systems so as to ensure they do not impact the banking systems during the salary and support deposit and transfer period. SAMA’s directives also include notifying it about any disruptions in the deposit process via a Treasury Support Message through the Saudi Financial Transfer System, explaining the reasons for the delay and specifying the expected deposit time, and submitting the necessary reports to the relevant authorities.

The guidelines also included establishing an appropriate internal escalation mechanism for problems that hinder or delay the processing and transfer of salaries and support, with immediate notification to the Executive Department of Operational Resilience Control at SAMA of any technical issue that may prevent or delay the deposit and transfer of salaries, including details of the nature of the issue and the measures taken to address it. The SAMA must be notified of any disruption in the processing of government salary payments received through the Central Bank, no later than 11:00 a.m. on the day of payment.

Banks are instructed to provide SAMA with detailed reports on government salary payments received through the Central Bank within three business days. These reports must include data on processed transactions and any rejected transactions, along with contact information for the individuals responsible for processing government salary payments received through the Central Bank.