JEDDAH, 7 March 2004 — The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) estimates that more than half a million bank accounts will be frozen by the end of the month. Khaled Abu Obeid, head of SAMA’s committee tackling financial crime and money laundering, told Al-Watan newspaper that by the end of the month 500,000 personal accounts and 30,000 corporate accounts would be frozen for non-compliance with orders to update account information. The freezing is being done at the rate of five percent of accounts per bank per day and will continue until all accounts not updated in all sectors of the Kingdom’s nine banks are frozen by April 28.