Regulation guide

SAMA Business Continuity Management

Operationalize the SAMA Business Continuity Management requirements—from regulatory obligations and evidence collection to vendor assessments, continuous monitoring, governance, and remediation workflows.

Overview

SAMA BCM expectations require financial institutions to prepare for disruptions affecting critical processes, customers, markets, technology, providers, and operations.

It applies to financial institutions and other regulated organizations in the Kingdom and requires organizations to identify, assess, govern, monitor, and manage risks introduced by material service providers, outsourcers, and operational dependencies throughout the entire relationship lifecycle.

Rather than prescribing identical controls for every relationship, the regulation emphasizes a continuous approach, requiring organizations to apply governance, oversight, controls, monitoring, and due diligence according to the criticality and risk of each relationship.

This implementation guide explains what the regulation requires, how those requirements translate into operational controls and evidence, and how Halbarad helps organizations operationalize compliance through assessments, continuous monitoring, governance workflows, and supply chain risk intelligence.

Official Sources

Operationalization Requirements

  • Identify critical processes and business impact.
  • Map people, technology, data, facilities, providers, and fourth parties.
  • Maintain continuity, recovery, crisis communication, and testing plans.
  • Track test findings, incidents, remediation, and management reporting.

Evidence Requirements

  • Business impact analysis and critical process map.
  • BCM plans, recovery strategies, and crisis communication records.
  • Provider and technology dependency maps.
  • Test results, incidents, remediation, and reporting.

Common Gaps

  • Provider dependencies are not included in BCM testing.
  • Recovery assumptions are not validated.
  • Findings are not tracked to closure.

How Halbarad Helps

Halbarad helps map critical processes to providers, fourth parties, incidents, test evidence, issues, and remediation.

Disclaimer

This guide is for general information only and is not legal advice. Review the official regulation, guidance, and supervisory materials, and consult qualified counsel or compliance advisors for your organization's specific obligations.