PIF joins the push to have Wall Street firms declare Riyadh their regional HQ

The Public Investment Fund is joining a wider government policy drive to prompt Wall Street firms to set up shop in Riyadh, Bloomberg reports, citing people it says are familiar with the matter. The PIF has added language to documents it sends to potential service providers explicitly asking them whether they’ve taken out a regional headquarters license in Saudi. The PIF has yet to formally require the license as a condition of doing business with the megafund.

What they said: “Once there is sufficient adoption of RHQ licenses in a sector, then it increases the pressure on other players in the sector to follow,” Waleed Rasromani, national managing partner for Saudi Arabia at law firm Linklaters, told the business news service. “Many firms in the financial industry are looking carefully at the RHQ rules at the moment.”

Clarity coming? Many bankers are unsure how their Middle East operations (read: presence in the UAE) would have to change as a result of taking out a regional HQ license here. Bloomberg claims the Investment Ministry is working with the Capital Market Authority and the central bank to sort that out.