Press Releases

H.E. Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), stated that the CBK Board of Directors, in a meeting on 9th of January 2005, decided on the issuance of provisional approval to the National Bank of Abu Dhabi to open a branch in the State of Kuwait.

This is the second case of foreign bank approval to open a branch in the State of Kuwait, after the authorization of the recent amendments in CBK law by virtue of Law No. 28/2004, that removed the restriction on foreign banks access to the local market through their branches, which required a contribution from the government of Kuwait or Kuwaiti financial and banking institutions to those banks. In a meeting held on 3-8-2004, CBK Board of Directors approved to open a branch of BNP Paribas.

H.E. the Governor indicated that in this year it is expected to give licenses to open other foreign bank branches in the local market, since the CBK received some requests during the last period from international and GCC based banks regarding their desire to open branches in Kuwait. CBK is considering these requests and investigating them, within certain standards and regulations issued by CBK Board of Directors in this regard, asserting that approvals in this stage will be for a limited number of them.

H.E. the Governor concluded his statement noting that the next step, from a procedural standpoint according to the Law No. 32/1968 and its amendments, requires submitting the matter to the Kuwaiti Council of Ministers to issue its decision regarding the approval to the National Bank of Abu Dhabi to open a branch in the State of Kuwait.