Regulation guide

SAMA Operational Risk Management

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

Overview

SAMA operational risk management focuses on identifying, assessing, monitoring, controlling, and reporting risk from people, process, systems, and external events. Third parties and technology providers are part of that profile.

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

  • Maintain operational risk governance and risk assessments.
  • Track incidents, losses, control failures, provider failures, and technology issues.
  • Connect outsourcing, cyber, BCM, and operational risk records.
  • Report issues, root cause, remediation, and risk trends.

Evidence Requirements

  • Operational risk framework and RCSA evidence.
  • Incident, loss, issue, root-cause, and remediation records.
  • Provider and system dependency evidence.
  • Management reporting.

Common Gaps

  • Provider incidents are not reflected in operational risk reporting.
  • Remediation is closed without root-cause validation.
  • BCM and outsourcing records are separate.

How Halbarad Helps

Halbarad helps connect operational risk events to providers, systems, issues, remediation, and reporting.

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.