Expat Loans - 20 Times Of Your Salary

With a strategic shift by banks towards financing expatriates and Bedoun residents, banks have decided to relax their strict policy towards financing expatriates and Bedoun residents, and allow the return of financing for non-Kuwaiti employees working in the private sector, allowing installment-based financing up to KD 70,000, as well as payment terms up to eight years without a guarantor, in line with banking practice that has become common in recent years, as long as the employer entity is trustworthy. According to bank sources, "Banks no longer turn down large segments of expatriates and Bedoun residents who work in the private sector."

Following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to expand to them with unusual facilities and conditions since various private sector job segments will likely benefit, even those with low wages.

In order to make consumer loans more accessible to non-Kuwaitis, banks lending to them have, once again, cut the conditional salary limit from KD 500 as a minimum to KD 300. Additionally, the required work period has been reduced from a one-year minimum to four months, as long as the value of the consumer loan is determined based on salary and the deduction percentage follows Central Bank of Kuwait guidelines.

Among the recently implemented banking controls for lending to employees outside of the government sector, the sources said, "One of the most notable aspects of these controls is that customers must meet the loan eligibility conditions prescribed by the supervisory regulator."

The customer must have a credit history that is free of defaults. In addition, he must work for a company listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange or listed on the bank's client list, or a company with adequate financial stability.

The customer should have a valid security card with sufficient validity if he is a Bedoun resident in addition to the above requirements." According to the sources, the loan limit for expatriates and Bedoun residents working in the private sector has been increased to 20 times their salaries for those earning high salaries.