Press Releases

H.E. Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah, Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), stated that within the framework of CBK's constant concern for developing the functioning of the Kuwaiti banking system and coping with international developments in the banking industry, CBK decided to implement the "IBAN" system (International Bank Account Number) in the State of Kuwait, which aims at achieving international unification of bank accounts in a way which enables banks' systems to achieve speed and accuracy when executing money transfer transactions.

H.E. the Governor indicated that CBK commenced the implementation of this project by means of forming a working group to study the account numbering systems in local banks to reach the suitable format for structuring bank accounts in the State of Kuwait. Such format which consists of thirty boxes (digits and letters) referring to country code, bank code, customer's account number, and two more boxes to verify the IBAN number.

Following that, a plan was developed in cooperation with local banks which came into force under CBK's supervision. The implementation of IBAN includes all accounts related to incoming and outgoing financial transfers, local and international, thus achieving many advantages and benefits, such as:

• Facilitating procedures related to banks' incoming and outgoing financial transfers both locally and internationally.
• Achieving integrity of the information included in bank transfers.
• Contributing to the implementation of Straight Through Processing.
• Executing financial transfers swiftly and accurately, and decreasing the costs through reducing manual intervention.
• Improving the level of accuracy of financial analytical reports issued by payment systems.

Furthermore, H.E. the Governor added that the CBK will register the State of Kuwait's IBAN structure with SWIFT, which is the authority of IBAN registry, to start implementing it at the beginning of 2011.

Moreover, H.E. the Governor indicated that the banking system in the State of Kuwait will be ready for IBAN implementation as of that date, wherein banks have upgraded their automated systems to ensure appropriate implementation. In addition, an orientation program for IBAN users in the banking sector will take place during the next period to address the importance of its implementation and how customers get their IBAN numbers from local banks which they deal with.

H.E. the Governor concluded his statement indicating CBK's keenness on keeping pace with the latest developments witnessed in the banking sector in order to implement the best international practices which can promote and improve the performance of the Kuwaiti banking system.