27/11/2025 – From 2 to 5 November 2025, Saudi Arabia hosted a four-day comprehensive workshop on the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI) in Riyadh. The in-person training followed two virtual trainings organised in May and June 2025 for financial institutions. These three events, which brought together over 400 participants in total, were co-organised by the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority of Saudi Arabia and the Global Forum Secretariat.
This series of events funded by ZATCA aimed to enhance the technical knowledge of financial institutions on CRS requirements. They were also part of Saudi Arabia’s communication efforts towards its financial sector on their CRS due diligence, reporting and record-keeping obligations and their compliance responsibilities, which are supervised by ZATCA.
Through a series of practical examples of application of the CRS requirements and common errors, participants deepened their knowledge on the nuances and complexities of the CRS rules and familiarised themselves with their practical application, thus strengthening their ability to comply with CRS obligations.
The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement the standard on transparency and exchange of information on request and the standards of automatic exchange of information, covering financial accounts data and crypto-asset transactions. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.
