Saudi Central Bank Stopped Opening of Bank Accounts Online & Limit Money Transfers

Many bank clients in Saudi Arabia have fallen for financial fraud, especially after the spread of electronic payment methods, as some customers were surprised of withdrawn of money from their bank accounts, making purchases from unknown sites, which leads the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to take a new measures in order to protect its customers from such financial fraud activities, will come into effect as of Sunday, April 10.

Saudi Central Bank Announces New Measures to prevent Financial Frauds and to Protect Customer bank accounts

• Suspension of opening new bank accounts for customers through online platforms until further notice.
• The maximum daily transfer amount for all accounts of individuals and institutions is limited to 60,000 riyals online.
• Customers can request to raise the maximum daily transfer limit from the bank, as well as take all necessary measures to reduce the commission of crimes and financial fraud.
• Expatriate customers will no longer be able to add money transfer beneficiaries online. Instead they have to visit bank branch to add new beneficiaries.
• Transit time for domestic transfers will be 2 hours while it will be 24 hours for international transfers.

Saudi Banks need to warn customers and the necessity of caution in case of these fraudulent operations, highlighting not to divulge and neglect any bank or personal data, and to deal with data of secret number and verification codes with caution.

Ensure the level of trust and security of websites before making any transfers or purchases through various platforms.

The Central Bank in its statement said, a noticeable increase in the number of financial frauds operations were observed, targeting bank customers in different ways. Specifically impersonating a responsible party and persuading the customer to disclose his private bank data, such as security codes and passwords, which allows fraudsters to easily access and seize bank accounts.