Saudi Arabia’s AML/CFT regime rests on two laws issued in 2017: the Anti-Money Laundering Law (Royal Decree No. M/20 of 1439H), amended in April 2026, and the Law on Combating Crimes of Terrorism and its Financing (Royal Decree No. M/21 of 1439H), amended in June 2026. Each has implementing regulations, and the AML regulations were updated in June 2026. Saudi Arabia has been a full member of the FATF since 2019 and is a founding member of MENAFATF.

How the regime is organised

• Policy and coordination. The Permanent Committee for Combating Money Laundering, chaired by the Governor of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and made up of 18 government bodies, coordinates AML policy. The April 2026 amendment put it on a statutory footing and gave it the job of setting risk-based national policy. The Permanent Committee for Combating Terrorism and its Financing, housed at the Presidency of State Security, coordinates counter-terrorist financing policy and handles UN sanctions requests.
• Financial intelligence. The General Directorate of Financial Intelligence, also known as the Saudi Arabia Financial Investigation Unit (SAFIU), receives and analyses suspicious transaction reports. It operates independently under the oversight of the President of State Security and is a member of the Egmont Group of FIUs.
• Supervision. SAMA supervises banks, finance companies, money exchangers and payment providers; the Insurance Authority supervises insurers (since November 2023); the Capital Market Authority (CMA) supervises securities firms; the Ministry of Commerce supervises dealers in precious metals and stones and accountants; the Real Estate General Authority (REGA) supervises real estate brokers; the Ministry of Justice supervises lawyers; and the National Center for the Development of the Non-Profit Sector oversees non-profit organisations.
• Borders. The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) runs the cross-border declaration system. Since June 2026, travellers must declare cash, bearer instruments, gold and other precious items worth SAR 40,000 or more, down from SAR 60,000.
• Investigation and prosecution. The Public Prosecution investigates and prosecutes money laundering, the Presidency of State Security leads on terrorism and terrorist financing, and the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) tackles corruption.

Key milestones

1. 1999

   The Permanent Committee for Combating Money Laundering is created.

2. 2004

   Saudi Arabia is one of the 14 founding members of MENAFATF.

3. 2015

   Saudi Arabia becomes an FATF observer.

4. 2017

   The first national ML and TF risk assessments are completed. New AML and Counter-Terrorism Laws are issued in October and November, and FATF and MENAFATF assessors carry out the on-site visit for the mutual evaluation in November.

5. 2018

   The mutual evaluation is adopted in June and published in September.

6. June 2019

   Saudi Arabia becomes a full member of the FATF. Its first follow-up report is adopted in October.

7. 2020

   The Anti-Commercial Concealment Law targets businesses run by non-Saudis behind a Saudi front.

8. 2023

   The Insurance Authority takes over insurance supervision from SAMA.

9. 2025

   The Ministry of Commerce’s beneficial ownership rules take effect in April, and public summaries of new national ML and proliferation financing risk assessments are released. The CMA issues rules on targeted financial sanctions in December.

10. 2026

    The AML Law is amended in April. In June, the Counter-Terrorism Law is amended, a new law on managing seized and confiscated funds is approved, and updated AML regulations lower the border declaration threshold. FATF assessors are due on site in November.

What has changed most for firms

• Statutory national policy. The Permanent Committee now sets risk-based national AML policy and assesses high-risk countries under the AML Law.
• Tougher consequences for individuals. Saudi nationals convicted of money laundering face a travel ban as long as their prison term, and foreign nationals are deported and may return only for Hajj or Umrah. Courts can also confiscate assets that are out of proportion to a person’s lawful income unless a lawful source is proven.
• Beneficial ownership transparency. Since April 2025, companies must keep a beneficial ownership register in the Kingdom, identify anyone with 25% or more, report changes within 15 days and confirm the register every year, with fines of up to SAR 500,000.
• Lower border threshold. Declarations are now required from SAR 40,000, with fines of 10% to 25% of the value for a first breach.
• Commercial concealment. The crackdown on tasattur continues. In November 2025 alone, the Ministry of Commerce carried out 4,242 inspections and found 98 suspected cases.

The framework has three layers: laws issued by Royal Decree, implementing regulations, and rules and guidance from each supervisor.

Primary laws and regulations

Sector rules

Key guidance

• The 2025 public summaries of the national money laundering risk assessment (overall medium) and proliferation financing risk assessment (medium-low), published by the AML Permanent Committee
• SAMA’s guide to implementing UN Security Council resolutions on terrorism and its financing, and its mechanism for proliferation financing
• The CMA’s Implementing Rules on Targeted Financial Sanctions (December 2025)
• REGA’s guidance on AML/CFT obligations for real estate brokers

Responsibility is split between two national committees, the sector supervisors, the FIU and the agencies that investigate and prosecute. Many key functions sit with the Saudi Central Bank or the Presidency of State Security.

Supervisors by sector

The financial intelligence unit (SAFIU)

• Status. The General Directorate of Financial Intelligence, also known as the Saudi Arabia Financial Investigation Unit (SAFIU), is set up in Riyadh under Article 17 of the AML Law. It works under the oversight of the President of State Security, with operational independence.
• Reports it receives. Suspicious transaction reports from financial institutions and DNFBPs, filed immediately and directly, whatever the amount. Reports on suspected terrorist financing also go to it under the Counter-Terrorism Law.
• How reports are filed. Electronically, through SAFIU’s reporting system. SAMA moved banks to electronic filing in 2019.
• What it does with them. Analyses reports, passes the results to the competent authorities, and can ask reporting entities for further information.
• International cooperation. SAFIU is a member of the Egmont Group. It exchanges information with other Egmont FIUs and has signed 49 memoranda of understanding with foreign counterparts.
• Guidance. The AML Permanent Committee publishes the national risk assessments and guidance for reporting entities on its website.

Who investigates and prosecutes

• The Public Prosecution investigates and prosecutes money laundering. It can ask the courts to confiscate assets that are out of proportion to lawful income, and can extend border seizures to 60 days
• The Presidency of State Security leads on terrorism and terrorist financing, and houses the Permanent Committee for Combating Terrorism and its Financing
• The Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) investigates corruption, one of the main sources of criminal proceeds
• Under the 2026 law on seized and confiscated funds, a permanent committee chaired by the General Authority for Guardianship of Minors’ Funds oversees how seized and confiscated assets are managed

Past cases show the scale. In 2022, authorities seized SAR 4 billion in a case in which six people received sentences of up to 25 years, and in 2023 seven people were convicted of laundering SAR 1.035 billion through company accounts.

Targeted financial sanctions

• Freeze within hours. SAMA’s guide requires firms to freeze promptly, within hours and without prior notice. The CMA’s 2025 rules add that a freeze cannot wait for internal committee approval.
• Screen continuously. SAMA expects customer databases to be checked daily against updated lists. The CMA requires screening at onboarding, before transactions, whenever lists change and in full at least every quarter, with a 12-month lookback for newly listed persons.
• Report. Notify the supervisor of a freeze within five working days, and file an STR with SAFIU where there are signs of sanctions evasion.
• Delisting. When the UN removes a listing, unfreeze within hours and notify SAMA within five working days.

AML/CFT obligations apply to financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs). The AML Law defines financial institutions by the activities they carry out, and the implementing regulations list the DNFBPs and the conditions under which they are covered.

Financial institutions

Article 1 of the implementing regulations lists the activities that make a business a financial institution. They include:

• Taking deposits, including private banking
• Lending, leasing and other financing
• Money or value transfer
• Issuing and managing means of payment, including e-wallets
• Financial guarantees
• Trading in securities and foreign exchange, and other securities activities
• Portfolio management, custody and asset management
• Insurance and investment-linked products

In practice this covers banks, finance companies, money exchangers and payment service providers (supervised by SAMA), insurers (Insurance Authority) and capital market institutions (CMA).

DNFBPs and when they are covered

Company formation and trust services are covered when lawyers or accountants provide them. Notaries are civil servants rather than a business sector, and casinos are prohibited. Since 2025 the Ministry of Commerce has also tightened customer due diligence rules for gold and gem dealers.

Virtual assets

• No licensing regime. Saudi Arabia has no licensing regime for virtual asset service providers, and virtual currencies are not legal tender. SAMA has warned the public against them, and banks and payment providers do not support crypto trading or payments.
• Regulated by substance. Tokens that work like securities fall under the CMA, and payment-type activity under SAMA’s payments rules. A first regulated real estate tokenisation project runs under joint REGA and CMA supervision.
• What it means for firms. Treat customers with crypto exposure as higher risk, ask where their funds come from, and watch for transfers to and from overseas exchanges. The AML Permanent Committee publishes red flag indicators for virtual assets.

Non-profit organisations

Non-profit organisations are overseen by the National Center for the Development of the Non-Profit Sector and, for endowments, the General Authority of Awqaf, mainly to protect them from misuse for terrorist financing. The April 2026 amendment removed references to non-profit organisations from several AML Law duties, including suspicious transaction reporting.

Quick check: is your business covered?

1. Do you carry out any of the financial activities listed above? If so, you are a financial institution, supervised by SAMA, the Insurance Authority or the CMA.
2. Are you a real estate broker, a dealer in gold or precious stones, a lawyer or an accountant, and do you carry out a covered activity, such as a cash sale of SAR 50,000 or more or a property deal for a client? If so, DNFBP obligations apply.
3. Do you deal in virtual assets? No licence is available, so take legal advice before offering any service.

If you are covered, register with your supervisor and make sure you can file reports with SAFIU before you need to.

These are the core obligations for financial institutions and DNFBPs under the AML Law and its implementing regulations, together with the sanctions rules. SAMA, the CMA and the other supervisors add sector-specific rules, so always read them alongside your supervisor’s requirements.

Key numbers and qualifications

Read these summaries with the detailed duties below and the rules for your sector. The linked provisions explain their scope.

What you must do

Saudi Arabia has been a full member of the FATF since June 2019, after four years as an observer, and is a founding member of MENAFATF. Its mutual evaluations are carried out jointly by the FATF and MENAFATF. The last full evaluation was published in 2018, and the next is due to start with an on-site visit in November 2026.

Current status

The 2018 mutual evaluation

• Process. A joint FATF and MENAFATF assessment, with an on-site visit from 8 to 23 November 2017. The report was adopted in June 2018 and published on 24 September 2018.
• Effectiveness. No Immediate Outcome was rated high. Four were rated substantial (risk and coordination, supervision, terrorist financing investigation, and terrorist financing prevention and sanctions), four moderate (international cooperation, preventive measures, legal persons and financial intelligence) and three low (money laundering investigation and prosecution, confiscation, and proliferation financing sanctions).
• Technical compliance. 36 of the 40 Recommendations were rated compliant or largely compliant: 19 compliant and 17 largely compliant. Four were partially compliant (R.6, R.7, R.33 and R.36), and none non-compliant.
• Strengths. Strong coordination between agencies, and a substantial response to terrorist financing, with more than 1,700 terrorist financing investigations and over 1,100 convictions since 2013.
• Main gaps. Money laundering investigations were reactive and unsophisticated, and rarely targeted professional launderers. Little criminal property was confiscated or recovered, although an estimated 70% to 80% of domestic proceeds of crime left the country. Saudi Arabia did not effectively seek international cooperation in money laundering cases, and proliferation financing sanctions were weak.
• Result. Saudi Arabia was placed in enhanced follow-up.

Progress since 2018

1. June 2019

   The FATF granted Saudi Arabia full membership, based on its commitment to complete the items on its action plan.

2. October 2019: first follow-up report

   R.6 and R.7 (targeted financial sanctions) were upgraded to largely compliant. R.18 and R.21 were lowered from compliant to largely compliant because the FATF Standards had changed. Saudi Arabia reached 38 of 40: 17 compliant and 21 largely compliant. Only R.33 (statistics) and R.36 (international instruments) remain partially compliant. The report was published in January 2020, and Saudi Arabia stayed in enhanced follow-up.

3. November 2024

   Riyadh hosted the 39th MENAFATF plenary, marking the body’s 20th anniversary.

4. 2025

   Public summaries of new national money laundering and proliferation financing risk assessments were released, and the CMA issued rules on targeted financial sanctions.

5. 2026

   The AML Law, the Counter-Terrorism Law and the AML regulations were updated, and a new law on managing seized and confiscated funds was approved ahead of the next evaluation.

Membership and listing history

Saudi Arabia was one of the 14 founding members of MENAFATF in 2004. It became an FATF observer in June 2015 and a full member in June 2019, the first Arab country to do so, according to its AML Permanent Committee. It has not been placed under FATF increased monitoring. In 2019 the European Commission proposed adding Saudi Arabia to the EU list of high-risk third countries, but EU member states rejected that list, and Saudi Arabia is not on the current EU list.

What comes next

• Saudi Arabia’s next mutual evaluation is a joint FATF and MENAFATF assessment under the new round of evaluations. The FATF’s calendar lists a possible on-site visit in November 2026 and plenary discussion in June 2027, and notes that dates may change.
• Effectiveness has not been reassessed since 2018. The weakest areas then, money laundering prosecutions, confiscation and proliferation financing sanctions, are likely to be closely examined.
• Several recent reforms relate directly to those areas, including confiscation of unexplained wealth, the new law on managing seized assets and the CMA’s sanctions rules.

Saudi Arabia completed its first national money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessments in 2017. In 2025 the AML Permanent Committee published public summaries of updated assessments, which rate the overall money laundering risk as medium and proliferation financing risk as medium-low. Your own risk assessment should reflect these findings.

Money laundering threats

Criminal proceeds are mostly held in cash, and the offences are mainly committed by organised groups. The public summary does not rank the other predicate offences.

The 2017 assessment put criminal proceeds at an estimated USD 12 billion to 32 billion, with 70% to 80% of domestic proceeds flowing out of the country. By source, drug trafficking accounted for 31% of proceeds, corruption 22%, counterfeiting and piracy 21% and customs smuggling 8%.

Sector exposure

The 2025 summary names banks and gold dealers as the most exposed sectors. In 2017, money remitters were also among the highest-risk sectors.

Terrorist and proliferation financing

• Terrorist financing threat. The 2018 evaluation describes the main threat as cells of Al-Qaeda, ISIL and their affiliates, and records more than 3,000 departures of foreign fighters between 2000 and 2018.
• Terrorist financing response. Assessors rated the response substantial, with more than 1,700 terrorist financing investigations and over 1,100 convictions since 2013.
• Proliferation financing. The overall risk is medium-low: the direct threat is low and the indirect threat medium-low. No proliferation financing cases were found, though the assessment warns that this does not mean none exist.
• Most exposed channels. Banks are the most exposed sector, mainly through wire transfers and trade finance. Cross-border movement of goods and trade finance carry a medium-high residual risk.

Common typologies

• Commercial concealment (tasattur). Businesses registered to Saudi nationals but run by non-Saudis for their own account, often moving cash earnings abroad. In November 2025 alone the Ministry of Commerce carried out 4,242 inspections and found 98 suspected cases.
• Front companies and pass-through accounts. Commercial entities that collect funds from many parties and quickly transfer them abroad, or move money in circles between related accounts and companies, with no commercial reason.
• Nominees and third parties. Bank accounts or companies held in other people’s names, and intermediaries used to hide who is really behind a transaction.
• Cash, gold and illegal remittances. Unlicensed money transfer, and cash and gold carried across the border without being declared or falsely declared. Remittance outflows are large: about USD 38.8 billion in the year to April 2017.
• Trade-based money laundering. The 2018 evaluation found trade to be one of the main ways criminal proceeds leave the country.
• Fraud. Call-centre and impersonation scams. In one 2024 case, a network impersonating government agencies carried out 177 fraudulent operations worth SAR 22 million, and two members were jailed for 15 years each.

Red flags for front-line staff

These are drawn from the 2025 national risk assessment summary, the FATF evaluation and supervisors’ guidance. One red flag on its own is not proof of wrongdoing, but several together call for closer review and, where suspicion remains, an STR.

Eight scenarios for a self-check. Choose your answer mentally or note it down, then reveal the explanation. Count your own correct answers; no score or learning progress is saved.