The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) imposed a financial penalty of KWD 35,000 on a Kuwaiti bank on 18 November 2025, following an inspection mission that identified failures in the institution's compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements. The CBK Board sanctioned the penalty after the inspection confirmed breaches of the applicable regulatory framework.
The penalised institution was not named in the CBK's published announcement. The notice described the bank as a Kuwaiti bank subject to CBK oversight, without further specification as to its size, ownership structure, or the business lines in which the AML/CFT deficiencies were identified.
SPECIFIC REGULATORY ARTICLES BREACHED
The CBK's notice imposed the penalty under Article 15 of Law No. 106 of 2013, as amended, Kuwait's primary legislative instrument on combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The violation found was of Article Second/1/N of the CBK's own AML/CFT instructions, issued on 16 February 2023.
Law No. 106 of 2013 sets out foundational obligations for financial institutions in Kuwait on customer due diligence, suspicious transaction reporting, and record-keeping.