Kuwait: The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has instructed local banks to introduce additional safeguards for the salaries of low-income private-sector employees, requiring two-factor authentication for withdrawals, transfers and payments of KD 25 or more from accounts belonging to workers earning KD 300 or less per month.<\/p>
The new rules will take effect on December 31, 2026, as part of efforts to prevent fictitious wage payments and protect workers from employers who may force them to return their salaries after the money has been deposited.<\/p>
The measures complement the Kuwait Wage Payment System (KWPS), launched on September 28 to ensure that private-sector salaries reach their rightful recipients and remain under employees’ control.<\/p>
Under the new instructions, banks must verify the identity and consent of employees for every covered transaction, regardless of the banking channel used. Salary deposits are exempt from the additional authentication requirement.<\/p>
The employee’s eligibility will be determined based on the latest monthly salary information recorded by the bank. Banks must update the classification whenever an employee’s salary changes.<\/p>
Additional safeguards for employees<\/strong><\/p> Before approving a transaction, banks must clearly display its type, amount and beneficiary to ensure employees understand and authorise the payment. Simply logging into a banking application will not be sufficient authentication.<\/p> The verification process must involve two employees from different categories at the bank. Authentication methods must also be personally linked to the account holder.<\/p> Banks must provide secure alternative verification methods for workers who do not own smartphones or cannot access banking applications. They must also verify employees’ contact details directly rather than relying solely on information supplied by employers.<\/p> Banks to monitor suspicious transactions<\/strong><\/p> The CBK has instructed banks to monitor unusual salary-related transactions and report suspected cases of wage manipulation. Monitoring must extend beyond the KD 25 transaction threshold, as employees could still face pressure to return their salaries after receiving them.<\/p> Warning indicators include employees transferring salaries back to employers or affiliated parties without a legitimate reason, employers retaining workers’ bank cards or PINs, and complaints of forced salary returns.<\/p> Other indicators include withdrawing or transferring 80 per cent or more of a salary within 72 hours in at least two of the previous three payroll cycles. Transferring 50 per cent or more of the salary to an employer or an affiliated party within the same period will also require scrutiny.<\/p> Banks must also examine similar transaction patterns involving five employees or 20 per cent of a company’s workforce, whichever is lower.<\/p> Cash withdrawals will remain permitted<\/strong><\/p> The CBK clarified that withdrawing an entire salary in cash does not automatically indicate wage manipulation or wrongdoing. The monitoring thresholds are intended to help banks identify suspicious patterns and are not restrictions on how employees spend their money.<\/p> Banks must review suspicious activity by examining transactions from the preceding six months and comparing them with employees’ normal banking behaviour.<\/p> The CBK has also established reporting timelines, requiring banks to conduct an initial review within two days and report cases once sufficient grounds for suspicion are established. Urgent cases must be reported immediately.<\/p> Compliance requirements for banks<\/strong><\/p> Local banks must complete their technical and operational preparations before December 31, 2026. They are also required to submit monthly reports on monitoring and investigation activities by the fifth working day of the following month.<\/p> The Central Bank said the measures are intended to ensure that private-sector salaries are not merely recorded as paid but genuinely reach employees, who must retain control over their wages.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kuwait: The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has instructed local banks to introduce additional safeguards for the salaries of low-income private-sector employees, requiring two-factor authentication for withdrawals, transfers and payments of KD 25 or more from accounts belonging to workers earning KD 300 or less per month. The new rules will take effect on December […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kuwait-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6075,"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6073\/revisions\/6075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorsnewslive.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}