The firm's second flagship strength — banking and finance, tax and zakat, and Islamic finance.
Riyadh is home to SAMA, the Capital Market Authority, and ZATCA — the three regulators that between them govern almost everything involving money in Saudi Arabia, from a bank's lending book to a small business's zakat return. This practice, the firm's second flagship, sits at the intersection of all three.
The work ranges from routine — collecting an unpaid commercial debt, filing a tax objection — to complex — structuring an Islamic finance facility, defending a fintech license application, or responding to a SAMA enforcement inquiry. The difference between a firm that understands this intersection and one that treats each regulator as a separate system shows up quickly in the quality of advice you actually get.
Any company with mixed ownership — Saudi or GCC on one side, foreign on the other — finds itself dealing with zakat and tax at the same time: the Saudi or GCC-owned share is subject to zakat, the foreign share is subject to corporate income tax, and each is calculated in a completely different way. Getting the classification wrong from the start costs a far more expensive correction once ZATCA actually audits the filing.
The matter doesn't end at direct zakat and tax either — there's VAT, withholding tax on payments to non-residents, and each carries its own registration and filing rules. If you've received a tax assessment you don't agree with, there's a formal objection process — and it's better to bring in a lawyer at the objection stage itself, not only once the matter escalates to a full appeal.
SAMA-licensed banks and finance companies rely on banking and finance law to draft facility agreements and register security interests, while borrowers rely on the same practice to review loan terms before signing — particularly covenants, the security package, and default terms, since these determine what happens if you need more flexibility later or fall behind on a payment.
And if your company has actually defaulted on payment, the firm also covers individual insolvency and bounced cheque disputes, which are often enforced directly through the execution courts without needing a full lawsuit — making them one of the fastest debt recovery paths available.
Islamic finance and takaful structures — murabaha, ijara, sukuk — follow Sharia principles around risk-sharing and the prohibition of interest, while simultaneously falling under the same SAMA oversight that conventional products face. This means a Sharia-compliant facility needs to satisfy both the Sharia board's requirements and SAMA's requirements at the same time — not simply a variation on a conventional finance contract with different wording.
The same principle applies to takaful as the Islamic alternative to conventional insurance, operating on a cooperative, risk-sharing model that needs to be understood differently when drafting or reviewing a takaful policy.
If you're building a fintech product, most activities — from payment gateways to digital lending — need a SAMA license, and the regulatory sandbox offers a path to test a new model with real customers before committing to a full license. Crypto and virtual assets, meanwhile, remains an area where the regulatory framework continues to develop, and we give you a current, honest assessment rather than assuming a foreign model applies directly to the Saudi market.
And if you're a party to a dispute with an unlicensed forex platform or have been affected by investment fraud, we also cover forex disputes and financial and investment fraud, coordinating with Capital Market Authority powers where applicable.
Lenders and finance companies rely on this practice for loan documentation, security enforcement, and regulatory compliance with SAMA's finance company rules. Borrowers and businesses rely on it for debt restructuring, dispute defense, and tax and zakat planning. If your matter needs a broader corporate dimension — forming a new entity or corporate governance — this practice integrates directly with Corporate & Commercial.
Where a matter crosses into criminal or civil fraud — an investment scheme, a forged financial instrument — the team coordinates directly with the firm's Disputes & Litigation practice rather than treating it as a separate engagement.
If you're negotiating a credit facility and want the terms reviewed before signing, you've received a tax or zakat assessment you don't agree with, you have a bounced cheque you want collected quickly, or you're building a fintech product and need to understand the licensing path — these are all moments worth reaching out before taking a step that might be harder to correct later.
Message us on WhatsApp and describe your financial or financing situation briefly, and we'll clarify the right path, usually within the same day.
Yes — Saudi and GCC-owned businesses are typically subject to zakat, while foreign-owned shares of a business are typically subject to corporate income tax, and many companies deal with both simultaneously. We handle compliance and disputes for either.
Yes, debt collection — including through bounced cheques treated as enforceable instruments before the execution courts — is a core part of this practice.
Yes — Islamic finance structures (murabaha, ijara, sukuk) and takaful insurance follow a distinct Sharia-compliance framework, and we structure and review them accordingly rather than treating them as a variation on conventional finance.
It varies by the debtor's circumstances and how easily identifiable their assets are, but a cheque generally moves faster than an ordinary debt claim since it can go directly to the execution court. We'll give you a realistic estimate for your specific case.
Yes — reviewing an application's structure and documentation before submission is a common part of this practice, and it meaningfully reduces the risk of delays or objections during examination.
Expert Riyadh