The Qualified Foreign Investor regime is gone. Saudi Exchange's own announcement, dated 6 January 2026, describes amendments that eliminate the QFI concept entirely, "enabling all foreign investors to invest directly in shares listed in the main market". The Capital Market Authority's own release puts it as "allowing all categories of foreign investors to access the market without the need to meet qualification requirements", and it is that release, not the exchange announcement, which states that the swap-agreement framework goes with it.
The underlying instruments are two CMA board resolutions, dated 22 December 2025 and 5 January 2026, amending the Securities Borrowing and Lending Regulations, the Glossary of Defined Terms Used in the Exchange Rules, and the Depository Centre Procedures. The effective date is 1 February 2026.
There is a small confirming detail that is oddly satisfying: Saudi Exchange's QFI information page no longer exists. Navigating to it returns "No content found". The framework has been deleted from the exchange's own website.
Why it changed nothing for residents
The QFI regime existed to let foreign institutions outside Saudi Arabia buy listed Saudi shares. It set asset thresholds and an application process. It was never the route by which someone living and working in the Kingdom bought shares.
Saudi Exchange states the position for individuals plainly on its investor page: "The investor will need to be a Saudi or GCC national or a registered Saudi Arabian resident."
An iqama holder is a registered Saudi Arabian resident. That has been the route into Tadawul for expat residents throughout, and it is unchanged. If you have been in Saudi for five years wondering whether the market was open to you, it was, and the February reform is not the reason.
Why this gets reported the other way round. "Saudi opens market to foreign investors" is an accurate headline about a real change for institutional money abroad. Read from a flat in Riyadh it suggests a door has just been unlocked for you. It has not, because you were not standing outside it.
The rule that does still apply to you
Being able to invest is not the same as being outside the foreign investment framework, and this is where the useful detail sits. The Rules for Foreign Investment in Securities — issued 27 March 2023 and last amended on 5 January 2026, the same date as the second board resolution — draw a distinction that repays a careful read.
Article 5 sets the scope. It applies to "Foreign natural and legal persons, whether residing or not". So a resident expat is inside the foreign investment framework. Residency does not take you out of it.
Article 6(a)(1) sets the single-issuer cap. It binds "A non-residing foreign investor (except the foreign strategic investor)", limiting them to 10% of any one issuer. The words "non-residing" are doing real work. That 10% cap does not bind an iqama holder.
Article 6(a)(2) sets the aggregate ceiling at 49% of an issuer, covering "all foreign investors (in all categories, whether residents or non-residents, except the foreign strategic investors)". Resident expats do count toward that 49%.
So the accurate summary for someone on an iqama is: you are inside the foreign investment rules; the individual 10% limit does not apply to you; you form part of the collective 49% ceiling.
For a retail investor buying a normal parcel of shares, none of this is a practical constraint — nobody is approaching 10% of a Tadawul-listed company. We include it because it is the actual legal position, and because the two-line version circulating online, which is that residents are treated as domestic investors, is not right.
How a resident actually opens an account
The mechanics are more straightforward than the regulatory discussion suggests.
Derayah Financial states that residents "can open the account electronically by using the national access service (Absher)" — the same government identity platform used for other official transactions. Derayah's wording is "residents" rather than iqama holders specifically, though in practice that is who it means. GCC nationals are directed to a branch. Non-residents and foreign investors are also accommodated, with Derayah stating that it "enables international investors to open investment accounts with ease and confidence".
Sahm Capital, which holds CMA licence number 22251-25 issued in October 2022 and became a Tadawul member on 29 November 2023, states that it has "no account minimums or transaction minimums". Funding is by bank transfer or Apple Pay, with the condition that the name on the funding account must exactly match the account holder's, a detail that saves a bounced transfer.
What it costs
Two published schedules, both from the brokers themselves.
| Sahm Capital | Derayah Financial | |
|---|---|---|
| Tadawul commission | 0.105% of net transaction, currently 0% on a stated limited-time offer | Zero commission, minimum SAR 0.00 |
| Nomu | — | Zero commission |
| Regulatory fees | CMA 0.030%, exchange 0.009%, settlement 0.005%, clearing 0.005%, safekeeping 0.001% | Apply separately |
| US market | $0.015/share, minimum $0.49 or $1.99 depending on price, capped at 1.5% | $0.0199/share, minimum $1.99 |
| Other developed markets | — | 0.199%, 16 markets |
| GCC markets | — | 45bps, including Boursa Kuwait and the Qatar Stock Exchange |
| VAT | 15% on commission and most fees | Excluded from quoted figures |
Neither schedule is dated, which is worth noting given how much of this page is about verifying things. Sahm's pricing page carries a data-effective stamp of 27 January 2026; Derayah's fee page carries no effective date at all.
An open question on VAT. Both Sahm schedules state that "Foreign investors are exempt from this fee" in relation to the 15% VAT. Sahm does not define "foreign investor" anywhere we could find. Under Saudi VAT logic the term would ordinarily mean a non-resident, which would mean an iqama-holding expat pays the 15% — but Sahm does not say that, and we are not going to assert it on their behalf. If the VAT treatment matters to your calculation, put the question to the broker in writing and get the answer before you fund the account.
The route that is still not published
A frequent question is whether a Saudi resident can reach Tadawul through Interactive Brokers instead of a local broker.
Interactive Brokers has a Saudi Exchange page promoting an alliance with SNB Capital and describing itself as "the first international broker to offer foreign retail clients access to the Saudi Exchange". It does not state which client residencies are eligible, and it says nothing about whether Saudi residents can open accounts. It does publish a Tadawul fee page, but that page lists only third-party pass-throughs — exchange fees at 0.02% of trade value, execution fees at 0.00525% and regulatory fees at 0.03%, with no Interactive Brokers commission rate of its own stated.
We have checked this twice, some weeks apart, and it remains unpublished. We are not going to infer an answer from an absence.
What can be said is that the question may be less important than it appears. A Saudi resident is directly eligible to trade listed shares through a CMA-licensed local broker, with electronic onboarding through Absher and zero or near-zero commission on Tadawul. The case for routing through a foreign broker to reach a domestic market you already have direct access to is not obvious.
One thing to hold in view
An expatriate in Saudi Arabia accrues no state pension. GOSI states on its own site that the Occupational Hazards Branch "compulsorily covers all Saudi and non-Saudi workers" at 2% of wage paid by the employer, while "The Annuities Branch is compulsorily applied to all Saudi workers". Non-Saudis receive lump sums for injury — up to SAR 330,000 for total disability and SAR 165,000 for partial — rather than a pension.
So the end-of-service award and whatever you build yourself are the whole of it. That is the context in which market access is worth caring about at all.
EW+ View
The February reform is a real change badly matched to the audience that read about it. Institutions abroad gained direct access; residents already had it.
The more interesting question it raises is why so many expats living in Saudi Arabia believed the market was closed to them. Part of it is that the coverage of Saudi capital markets is written for institutional readers. Part of it is that "foreign investor" is a legal category that includes residents, which makes rules aimed at non-residents look as though they apply to everyone holding a foreign passport.
The precise position is worth carrying: you are a foreign investor under the rules; the 10% single-issuer cap in Article 6(a)(1) does not bind you because it is written for non-residents; the 49% aggregate ceiling in Article 6(a)(2) counts you. Neither will constrain a retail portfolio. Both are the actual law rather than the summary.
Common questions
The Qualified Foreign Investor framework was abolished, along with the swap-agreement framework. Saudi Exchange's announcement of 6 January 2026 describes amendments enabling all foreign investors to invest directly in main-market shares. The underlying CMA board resolutions are dated 22 December 2025 and 5 January 2026.
Yes, and this has not changed. Saudi Exchange states that an investor "will need to be a Saudi or GCC national or a registered Saudi Arabian resident". An iqama holder qualifies as a registered resident. The QFI regime that was abolished applied to institutions outside the Kingdom, not to residents.
Partly. Article 5 of the Rules for Foreign Investment in Securities covers foreign persons "whether residing or not", so residents are inside the framework. The 10% single-issuer cap in Article 6(a)(1) applies to a "non-residing foreign investor" and therefore does not bind an iqama holder. The 49% aggregate ceiling in Article 6(a)(2) expressly covers foreign investors "whether residents or non-residents", so residents do count toward it.
Derayah states that residents holding an iqama can open an account electronically using Absher, the national access service. GCC nationals are directed to a branch. Sahm Capital states that it has no account minimums or transaction minimums; funding is by bank transfer or Apple Pay, and the name on the funding account must exactly match the account holder's.
Derayah publishes zero commission on Tadawul and Nomu with a SAR 0.00 minimum, with regulatory fees applying separately. Sahm publishes a standard commission of 0.105% of the net transaction, currently 0% on a stated limited-time offer, plus CMA, exchange, settlement, clearing and safekeeping fees and 15% VAT.
Not established. Interactive Brokers has a Saudi Exchange page describing an alliance with SNB Capital, but it does not state which client residencies are eligible. It publishes a Tadawul fee page listing third-party exchange, execution and regulatory pass-throughs, but no Interactive Brokers commission rate of its own. We checked twice, weeks apart, and the eligibility question remains unpublished. Note that a resident already has direct access through a CMA-licensed local broker at zero or near-zero Tadawul commission.
No. GOSI states that its Occupational Hazards Branch compulsorily covers all Saudi and non-Saudi workers, while the Annuities Branch — the pension arm — applies compulsorily to Saudi workers. Non-Saudis receive lump-sum compensation for injury rather than a pension.
Next steps
- If you hold an iqama and have been assuming Tadawul was closed to you, check the Saudi Exchange investor page — the eligibility wording is one sentence.
- Compare the two published broker schedules on the markets you will actually trade, not on the headline Tadawul rate, since both are at or near zero.
- Ask your broker in writing whether the 15% VAT applies to you as an iqama holder. Neither schedule defines the term used.
- Check whether the funding account name matches your brokerage account name exactly before transferring.
- Remember that no state pension is accruing — the end-of-service award and your own portfolio are the whole provision.
Further reading on ExpatWealthPlus
- Investment platforms in Saudi Arabia
- Saudi brokers compared
- Derayah or Sahm Capital
- Trading Nomu as an expat in Saudi Arabia
- End of service compared across the Gulf
Official sources
Every figure in this article is checked against the primary source. These are the places to verify the current position for yourself, since rates, rules and product terms change.
- CMA Saudi Arabia — market access announcement →All categories of foreign investors, without qualification requirements
- CMA — Rules for Foreign Investment in Securities →Articles 5 and 6(a); last amended 5 January 2026
- Saudi Exchange — Edaa announcement, 6 January 2026 →The QFI concept eliminated, effective 1 February 2026
- Derayah Financial — prices and fees →Zero commission on Tadawul and Nomu; the GCC and global schedules
- Sahm Capital — Saudi stock fees →The 0.105% commission, regulatory fees and the VAT statement
- GOSI — contributor FAQ →Occupational hazards covers all workers; annuities is Saudi nationals only