The Central Bank of Kuwait has imposed a combined KD 55,000 in financial penalties across two entities — a local bank and an electronic payment service provider — for failures to comply with the country's anti-money laundering and counter-financing-of-terrorism standards, the regulator announced on 18 August 2025.
The local bank received a financial penalty of KD 35,000 together with a written warning and was directed to implement specific corrective measures. The electronic payment service provider was fined KD 20,000 for violating Clause 7 of the AML/CTF instructions issued on 5 July 2023, which govern the compliance obligations of payment and electronic money service providers operating in Kuwait. The bank's sanctions were imposed under Article 15 of Law No. (106) of 2013 on AML/CTF.
WRITTEN WARNING AND CORRECTIVE MEASURES
A written warning is a formal supervisory sanction that goes beyond a monetary fine.
The regulator cited breaches of Clause 10/1 (paragraphs 1 and 2a) and repeated breaches of Clause 13/1 of its AML/CFT instructions of 16 February 2023. Neither the bank nor the payment provider was identified by name.
INSPECTION FINDINGS
The Central Bank of Kuwait said the bank's penalties followed the findings of an inspection mission assessing compliance with AML, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation-financing rules.