The Board of Directors of the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (“QFMA”) has approved amendments to the rules for combatting money laundering and terrorist financing, which permit making payments for securities trading on the Qatar Stock Exchange from either an investor account in Qatar or from an account in an investor’s country of residence to facilitate investors’ dealing from outside of Qatar.
Specifically, Article 4.1.2 (c) of the AML/CFT Rules has been amended to permit payments from bank accounts abroad. Previously, Article 4.1.2 (c) read as follows: “(c)the customer has a bank account at a Qatari bank, regulated and supervised by the Qatar Central Bank, through which all payments for or from the customer for trading securities are made”. The new language of the Article now states: “(c)the customer has a bank account at a bank in the State of Qatar or in the country of residence regulated and supervised by a regulatory authority, through which all payments for or from the customer for trading securities are made.”
The amendments were introduced based on the application of a Risk-Based Approach in accordance with the National Risk Assessment Relating to Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing and Proliferation Financing under the auspices of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Committee (NAMLC) to ensure the continuity of trading securities on Qatar Stock Exchange without the use of cash payments.
