Bank statement for transfers if they exceed 3,000, even by one dinar
- IT verification clarifies the extent to which transferred amounts align with the customer’s actual income.
- The Central Bank has intensified its field operations, conducting inspections of records and ensuring that vulnerabilities are addressed.
- Advancements in anti-money laundering (AML) methods and an increase in data reliability through supervisory and procedural plans.
- Tangible progress in evaluating Kuwait’s response to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requirements and relevant international standards.
Exchange companies have begun implementing additional precautionary measures to enhance their capacity to detect any suspicious behavior in financial transfers. This is part of broader plans led by the Central Bank of Kuwait, under its directives, to develop operational methods for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and to ensure the legitimacy of customers’ funds.
In this regard, and as part of due diligence measures to verify the sources of funds, exchange companies are now required to ask customers involved in financial transfers exceeding a threshold of 3,000 Kuwaiti dinars to provide a bank statement showing their fund movements for at least the last two months, even if the balance is as low as one dinar. This is a measure that was not previously applied; in the past, such requirements were limited to high-value transfers, with an average starting at 10,000 dinars, or those significantly exceeding the financial limits recorded in the company’s “Know Your Customer” (KYC) data.
The request by exchange companies for bank statements from customers making transfers exceeding 3,000 dinars aligns with the commitment of various Kuwaiti institutions to strengthen the legislative framework concerning the combating of money laundering and terrorist financing crimes. The measure aims to raise the accuracy and reliability of financial transfer data to the highest possible level, thereby ensuring that transferred and withdrawn funds correspond to the customer’s actual income, rather than being unexplained windfalls lacking financial or legal justification.
The new procedures adopted by exchange companies in this scope contribute to enhancing supervisory capacity, particularly in raising transparency levels for legal persons and beneficial owners. These efforts are driven by the development of the beneficial ownership system, strengthening disclosure requirements, and enhancing the effectiveness of the national system, in line with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and relevant international standards. These standards require exchange companies and financial institutions to verify the sources of their customers’ funds, especially in major transactions, even if they originate from the customers’ bank accounts.
In response to enhanced supervisory procedures that reinforce risk-based control methodologies and the development of inspection plans, all exchange companies are committed to setting the maximum limit for cash amounts used in a single transfer transaction for a customer at 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars per day. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Kuwait continues its field operations to strengthen the monitoring program for financial transfers and address all aspects of deficiencies in the financial transfer system, no matter how minor. This is achieved through its continuous requests for additional data from exchange companies demonstrating their efforts to verify the legitimacy of their customers’ funds.
In this direction, the Central Bank of Kuwait has increased its field inspections of exchange companies’ records to ensure, through supervisory oversight, that they do not commit violations related to non-compliance with mandatory instructions for combating money laundering, as stipulated by Law No. 106 on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, along with related decisions and directives issued in this regard.
Notably, Kuwait has recently made progress in the technical assessment of seven key recommendations under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards. The follow-up report concluded that all these recommendations were upgraded to the “largely compliant” level, following the remediation of previously identified deficiencies. This step reflects a series of legislative, regulatory, and supervisory reforms implemented by government authorities in recent periods.
The recorded improvements covered areas such as targeted financial sanctions, counter-terrorist financing, combating the financing of weapons of mass destruction proliferation, supervision of non-profit organizations, corporate transparency and beneficial ownership, as well as supervision of financial and non-financial businesses and professions, and international legal cooperation.
As a natural outcome of these efforts, the prospects for enhancing the country’s compliance with international standards in the fields of anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and combating the financing of weapons proliferation are growing, alongside strengthened supervision of financial institutions, non-profit organizations, and beneficial owners.
In its report on this matter, the FATF noted that Kuwait’s issuance of Ministerial Decision No. (8) of 2025, concerning the executive regulations of the Committee for Implementing Security Council Resolutions adopted under Chapter VII, contributed to strengthening mechanisms for listing, freezing of funds and assets, and the timely implementation of international resolutions within specified timeframes.
