December 2002 - Saudi Arabia announces the establishment of a High Commission to oversee contributions and donations to and from all charities.
February 2003 – The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) implements a major technical program to train judges and investigators on legal matters involving the financing of terrorism and money laundering methods. They are also told about methods used by criminals to exchange information.
May 2003 – Saudi Arabia asked the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and all Saudi charities to suspend activities outside Saudi Arabia until mechanisms are in place to monitor an control funds in order to ensure they are not misdirected for illegal purposes.
May 2003 – SAMA instructs all banks and financial institutions in the Kingdom to stop all financial transfers by Saudi charities to any accounts outside the Kingdom.
August 2003 – The Council of Ministers approves new laws that include harsher penalties for the crimes of money laundering and terror financing
February 27, 2004 – The Saudi Arabian government creates the Saudi National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad. This organisation has exclusive responsibility for all donations and contributions outside the Kingdom with the aim of eliminating the misdirection of funds that could undermine Saudi charitable operations.
June 16, 2004 – The Financial Action Task reports that Saudi Arabia has implemented the 40 (FATF) recommendations on the prevention of money laundering and the eight special recommendations on terrorist financing.
During the last three years, Saudi Arabia has investigated numerous bank accounts suspected of having links to terrorism and has frozen more than 40 such accounts.
