Financial services institutions planning to enter Qatar by opening a representative (rep) office will have simple rules and regulations to follow.
Rep offices, which will serve as a starting point to enter Qatar, do not require much capital requirement and huge manpower, said a senior official of Qatar Financial Centre (QFC).
“We are currently working on a simplified application process because this is a simplified establishment. We do not want to make it too complicated,” said Ewald Müller, Managing Director of the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA), in a video posted on QFC’s social media account.
“In essence key requirements are, there are only two approved individuals that is what we call a senior executive function, who has to be on the ground in Qatar. Then there is a money laundering reporting officer who should not be on the ground in Qatar, but is attached to the head office of which the rep office is a branch,” he added.
Earlier this month, QFC had announced new regulations for operating a representative office in Qatar. The new regulations are designed for financial services enterprises to establish a presence in Qatar’s flourishing market and promote their products and services.
The applicants will have to have a clear business plan and need to have approval from the regulator in their home country.
“We need a clear business plan, in other words, what activities are going to be conducted, what are you going to be marketing, how are you going to be marketing, what are the mechanism that you are going to use. Most importantly, approval from the head office that you are allowed to be here and that you are allowed to apply. The key to us as a regulator, is the approval of the home country regulator for the rep office to be established,” he added.
Generally, banks and other financial institution use rep office to enter a market and test market conditions. Opening a rep office not capital intensive exercise for companies.
“A rep office comes in as a branch of its head office. So there is no capital requirement, there is no massive requirement and we do not expect many people on the ground. So it gives them the ideal opportunity to test the water, to see what the market is about and to decide whether they can progress either to the next step or even further,” he said.
“Generally, we would expect most interest to come from the banking sector, but we already have an indication that certain investment managers are considering this,” he added.
