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Monday, 21 February 2022

Interested in an acquisition in the non-bank sector? You’ll soon need approval to start due diligence

You will soon need to get regulatory approval before conducting due diligence on non-banking financial institutions, according to a decision (pdf) announced by the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) yesterday. Anyone looking to invest in a non-bank lender will need the greenlight from the authority or its board before accessing the company’s internal documents and data, according to the new rule.

The requirement will come into effect when it’s published in the Official Gazette: The FRA said only that it will happen “soon,” when we asked them yesterday.

The regulator denied that there is a specific reason for the new rule, telling us that the FRA board continuously works on adding new regulations it believes would improve the process.

Two new dispute resolution committees for non-bank financial firms will be set up by the FRA to settle conflicts between companies and clients, the regulator also announced. The first committee will look into complaints within companies working in securities, while the second will handle issues across firms working in non-bank financing, including financial leasing and factoring, SME financing, and real estate financing.

The committees will decide on disputes referred to them by the FRA within one month, and will inform the concerned parties within 15 days of issuing their decision, according to the new regulations. Committee members will be appointed by FRA chief Mohamed Omran.

The FRA is giving the non-banking field lots of attention lately: Earlier this month, the regulator set out responsible lending principles for non-bank SME financing products, and made it easier for credit rating companies to get licenses, in moves meant to boost our non-banking financial sector.

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