The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) launched today, Tuesday,  06/01/1442H (08/25/2020) a wide-ranging awareness campaign under the slogan "Let Them Know You" to educate all establishments, institutions and legal entities about the importance and objectives of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) "MOARIF".

SAMA acknowledged that the need for regulatory and supervisory authorities around the world to identify the parties to financial transactions in various markets, products and regions has emerged after the 2008 global financial crisis.  As a result, at its Summit in Cannes in November 2011, the G20 advised the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to take the initiative and present recommendations on the development of a global legal entity identifier system. Subsequently, at the G20 Summit held in Los Cabos in 2012, the G20 leaders ratified the recommendations of the FSB made in this regard.

Saudi Arabia, represented by SAMA, supported the projects and initiatives presented by the international committees by participating with its representatives in all of these committees. One of the achievements of these committees was approving MOARIF, the local operating unit of the Saudi Credit Information Company (SIMAH), in 2015 by the LEI Regulatory Oversight Committee. After that, the process of linking MOARIF with the central operating unit was formally completed in 2017 in order for this operating unit to exercise its operational role of issuing digitally coded identifiers according to the international standards approved for all legal entities. In fact, the number of Saudi entities with an LEI reached 615 by the end of July 2020, including government bodies and private companies. In February 2018, SAMA hosted the International Meeting of the LEI Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF).

SAMA is making considerable and accelerated efforts in coordination with the competent government bodies to execute the LEI project in Saudi Arabia and then coordinate with the relevant regulatory and supervisory authorities to issue the rules governing this project to achieve its goals. This comes as part of fulfilling the obligations of Saudi Arabia as a member of the G20 and its international organizations and committees in addition to effectively supporting the investment environment in the country through this project.

MOARIF seeks to enhance the safety and transparency of financial markets and improve risk management, quality and accuracy of financial statements regarding the identification of legal entities. It also provides information about the entity's parent and subsidiary along with many other benefits for the public and private sectors.