KUWAIT CITY : The Central Bank of Kuwait informed banks that, starting from July 3, they must provide it with data of financial transfers in and out of Kuwait, and cash deposits with local banks that are equal to or more than 3,000 dinars, reports Al- Rai daily quoting CBK sources. The sources stated that the Central Bank has issued a circular to all banks that it was decided to establish a database for the transactions to be reported (TRS) and related to each of the cash deposits made to customer accounts (LCT) and money transfers executed to Kuwait for the benefit of customers (FCT), which are equal to or greater than 3 thousand dinars or its equivalent in foreign currencies per day for one customer.

The sources indicated that this decision comes within the framework of increasing the Central Bank’s double follow-up to additionally verify the extent of the banks’ commitment to follow up on unusual operations, explaining that, in order to quickly benefit from the data required to be sent from banks according to the guideline in this regard, it was decided that receiving information should be required (TRS) for the relevant data from (LCT) and (FCT) no later than 10 am from the day following the date of executing the transaction, including holidays and official holidays, with the possibility of receiving the system after that for transactions that were not listed by the unit Within the predetermined period, as a result of technical errors or malfunctions that led to this.

In addition, the bank must present the justifications and clarifications that caused this to the Coordination and Monitoring Unit of Information Systems in the Control Sector at the Central Bank, as it is scheduled to take the appropriate regulatory action in the absence of clarifications acceptable to the bank in this regard. The sources indicated that the Central Bank had previously informed bank officials that it plans to create more tools in this regard, which contribute to increasing the ability to inquire, follow-up and analyze patterns and behavior of unusual operations.

Responsible banking sources expected that the database of these transactions would expand compared to the numbers that the Central Bank had collected years ago, specifically before the establishment of the Financial Intelligence Unit in 2013 regarding combating money laundering and terrorist financing. It is noteworthy that CBK officials had earlier held an extensive meeting with directors of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing departments, compliance and internal control managers, and specialists in local banks, with the aim of making arrangements to provide the supervisory regulator with new data./AT