JEDDAH: The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has closed all avenues for the potential use of prepaid banking services in money-laundering operations and the financing of terrorism by taking extensive precautionary measures. Recently, these measures have included the monitoring of all financial processes and banking accounts to identify any unusual financial activity. SAMA has also warned Saudi banks of negligence in commitment to relevant banking rules.

At the same time, SAMA has called for the updating of verification mechanisms on basic card holder’s files, which are saved in the log data of banks, according to a local newspaper report. The source, who preferred anonymity, confirmed that SAMA has forced Saudi banks to verify their transaction logs on a regular basis, while the verification procedures for the operation of banks must be repeated according to the suspicion level of the cardholder to ensure that all records are agreeable in terms of their contracts with the primary cardholder.

“All local banks have been obliged to keep a record of transaction operations, including all payments on pre-paid services. This data will be provided to SAMA if it requests them. However, all Saudi banks must immediately report issues to SAMA’s Financial Investigation Unit if they discover any suspicious operations with regard to deposited money or pre-account payments,” the source said.