Banks Start Freezing Accounts

JEDDAH, 4 April 2004 — Banks have started freezing accounts that have not been updated, Arab News has learned.

The banks have started freezing five percent a day of accounts whose holders failed to update their personal information by the March 31 deadline. This will continue until all accounts in all sectors of the Kingdom’s nine banks are frozen.

This is in line with new regulations from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA).

Banks had given customers a three-month grace period after the original Dec. 31 deadline in hopes of avoiding any accounts being unnecessarily frozen.

A bank representative told Arab News investment accounts would also be frozen if the account holder’s information was not updated.

“We estimate that roughly 15 percent of personal accounts and 25 percent of company accounts are not updated,” Khaled Abu Obaid, chairman of the anti-money laundering committee at SAMA, told the AFP news agency.

The statistics were drawn from a total of about 3.2 million personal accounts and around 112,000 corporate accounts.

However, unfreezing of an account is instantaneous.

“When the information is updated, the account is reactivated on the spot,” he said.

In future, account holders must make sure that their documentation remains valid.

In case of Saudi account holders, a SAMA statement to banks said that account holders whose ID cards expired would have their accounts frozen 90 days after the expiry date.

The accounts of non-Saudis are frozen immediately after their documents — passport, iqama, or diplomatic card — expire.