Settlement services - Saudi Arabia

01.09.2022

Pre-matching service

The table below summarises CBL's pre-matching service for external settlement instructions, as well as the pre-matching method and start time in the market. For details of CBL's pre-matching services, see Pre-matching services for external settlement instructions.

Service offered

Method employed

Start (local time)

All securities

Immediate Release Flag available

Manual

SD-1 (or on receipt of instructions)

Connectivity medium

Instruction format

Xact Web Portal

Tick to enable the “Immediate Release” option.

Xact via SWIFT and Xact File Transfer

Field :22F::STCO/CEDE/IREL

Procedures for domestic counterparties

All securities

Field

Value

HSBC Saudi Arabia BIC

SABBSARI

Clearstream Investor ID

7003896

Clearstream Investor ID Name

Clearstream Banking S.A.

Clearstream Securities Account at Edaa (previously named Investor Access Trading Portfolio (IATP) number)

06300027239

Five-digit account number of counterparty at Clearstream

For example, 12345

CBL safekeeping a/c number with HSBC Saudi Arabia

086-014131-124

Allowed countervalue difference

A maximum difference in countervalue of SAR 188 (+/- USD 50 equivalent) is allowed for transactions with domestic counterparties. If there is a discrepancy, the cash amount of the delivering party will prevail. Customers should note that there is no official market tolerance level in place at the CSD and that the levels quoted above are based on CBL's service offering via its custodian.

Specific settlement rules / settlement restrictions

Domestic settlement

CBL's custodian, HSBC Saudi Arabia, maintains the Securities Account with the CSD in the name of Clearstream Banking S.A. This account is covered by CBL’s Investor ID, that is open in the name of “Clearstream Banking S.A.”.

To access and trade eligible Saudi Arabian securities via CBL domestically, customers must appoint their own brokers and provide the following details for the brokers to open a trading account. The brokers may conduct their own customer due diligence before opening the trading account.

Field

Value

Clearstream Investor ID

7003896

Clearstream Investor ID Name

Clearstream Banking S.A.

Clearstream Securities Account at Edaa (previously named Investor Access Trading Portfolio (IATP) number)

06300027239

Note: Customers who will only execute internal transactions do not need to appoint their own broker in Saudi Arabia.

Customers should be aware that trade settlement takes place from Sunday to Thursday in Saudi Arabia, however CBL does not operate on Sundays. With the implementation of PTTP, settlement cycles ranging from T+0 to T+5 will be introduced for Negotiated Deals, which will allow customers to avoid Sundays as a settlement day. Customers who execute Negotiated Deals with their brokers on Wednesdays are strongly advised to ensure that the agreed settlement date (SD) between both parties does not occur on Sundays by agreeing to a T+0, T+1 or T+3/4/5 cycle.  The customer’s broker will be able to modify the settlement cycle as agreed between both parties and thereby avoiding Sundays as the settlement date (SD). Settlement of trades in Saudi Arabia is mandatory and trades failing to settle on SD will go through a fail trade (buy-in) process from SD+1 and may result in penalties being passed to the customer from the customer’s broker. Customers should ensure that they send proper and timely instructions to CBL to avoid any further delays in settlement.

Investor eligibility

Only legal or natural persons, that are non-Saudi and/or non-residents of Saudi Arabia and are a customer or an underlying client of a customer of CBL can access the Saudi link and hold Saudi Arabian securities via CBL.

Customers who are already registered under the Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) program and are holding eligible Saudi Arabian securities will be able to transfer their holdings across to CBL and vice versa via FOP NCBO transfers. Such transfers are referred to as Cross Investor ID transfers in the market and customers are to send CBL MT540/542 NCBO instructions to transfer the securities. The format of the MT540/542 are under the Instruction specifications sections of the Market Link Guide – Saudi Arabia. Cross Investor ID transfers will typically take about two business days to complete.

Cancellations

There is no possibility to cancel or delay settlement for trades executed on the Saudi Exchange. Consequently, for such trades, settlement is mandatory on T+2.

Cash payments

The Saudi Arabian securities market settles against SAR. Customers are required to provision their SAR account through CBL’s SAR CCB, The Saudi British Bank. Customers are strongly recommended to provision their cash account before the deadlines set for securities instructions to avoid settlement delays and penalties.

Back-to-back processing

No back-to-back service is currently offered on the Saudi Arabian market.

Management of failed instructions

Settlement of trades executed for Saudi Arabian securities is mandatory. Trades failing to settle on settlement date (SD) will go through the fail trade process from SD+1 that is initiated by the defaulting broker. If the fail trade is not resolved by SD+4 by the defaulting broker, the Buyin process will be initiated by the CCP on SD+5. If the Buyin is still not successful by SD+8, the buying investor will receive a cash substitution on SD+9 in lieu of the securities.

Penalties

Any penalties related to fail trades will be levied on the defaulting broker who may pass on the penalties to their customer depending on who caused the failed trade.

Internal settlement

Internal settlement for Saudi Arabian securities is allowed in CBL subject to the following conditions:

  • Customers must include the deal price (clean price) in each internal instruction (field :90a::DEAL). Failure to include the deal price in the customer’s settlement instruction may result in CBL’s rejection of the instruction. Internal free of payment and against payment settlement is accepted in all eligible settlement currencies.

Bridge settlement

Bridge transactions are not possible.

New issues settlement

CBL Investor ID details can be used for public/private placement transactions. Customers must submit their bids to the Primary Dealer (PD) directly and quote CBL’s Investor ID (7003896) and Securities Account with EDAA (06300027239) on the bid application form.

Customers who subscribe to government securities or sukuks issued by the National Debt Management Center, will be informed by their primary dealer if the settlement of the new issue will take place under the Free of Payment (FoP) or delivery versus payment (DvP) mode. Under the FoP mode, the PD will call for the payment of the subscription amount upon allotment and customers should remit the payment directly to the PD and instruct CBL with an MT540 receive free instruction.

Under the DvP mode, customers must send a MT541 receive against payment instruction to CBL and fund their CBL cash accounts with the subscription amount.

CBL’s deadline for both MT540 and MT541 new issue settlement instructions is SD -1 12:00 AST time.

Separately, customers interested in participating in IPOs must check directly with the lead manager, if the IPO is allowing ICSD investors to participate and also check the information in the prospectus. Customers must fill the IPO bid form in accordance with the instructions of the lead manager and submit directly and arrange for payments to be paid directly to the lead manager's escrow account.