Article 4 of the Saudi Payments and Payment Services Law

This article is the licensing rule of the Law: no person, natural or legal such as a company, as "person" is defined in Article 1, may carry on either of two activities in the Kingdom without a license from the Saudi Central Bank:

• Operating payment systems, that is, the tools, procedures and rules by which payment orders are processed and settled.
• Providing payment services, such as carrying out operations to pay and transfer funds and process them, electronic cash payments, electronic payment wallets, payment information and account services, and whatever the regulations specify.

The prohibition is general: the text does not distinguish between a large and a small activity, and requires a license only from the Central Bank. The licensing conditions and procedures are not stated in this article but are left to the Central Bank and the regulations.

The prohibition is linked to Article 3, which sets the Law's application to payment systems and their operators and payment services and their providers, and to Article 5, which authorizes the Central Bank to set the cases and criteria in which a person residing outside the Kingdom is treated as carrying on these activities inside it.

Anyone planning to launch a payment or money transfer service would do well to consult a lawyer specializing in banking and finance and payment systems before starting.