Saudi Arabia's central bank invests in new regulatory software

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the Gulf nation’s central bank, recently adopted new software to regulate the nation’s insurance sector.

SAMA is now using new software from Vizor Ltd., the Irish regulatory software developer. It’s taken only 15 weeks for the new system to go live since the Vizor contract was signed.

With the new software, the central bank will now use a Returns Management System (RMS) that automates the complete regulatory return lifecycle. The system is designed to handle complex financial and corporate returns in everything from scheduling, collection, validation, processing and analysis of regulatory return data.

All insurance companies operating in the kingdom are now required to file their regulatory returns through the RMS online portal.

Ross Kelly, Vizor’s managing director, said SAMA will see greater efficiency from the implementation of the software and portal, which serves as a single point of online contact for regulatory submissions. It’s meant to be easy for insurers, and to improve data timeliness, quality, security and analysis.

"Working with a central bank of SAMA's magnitude, on a project of this scope, has been an exciting experience for us,” Kelly said. “To see phase one in production in such a short time period is really a tribute to the talent of our people. Additionally, it is a testament to what can be achieved when the vendor and client at all levels work closely as a team.

Phase two of the multi-part project will extend the scope of the RMS to include supervision of the banking sector. The system will incorporate supervision of the finance sector in phase three.