Since 2016, Kuwait's Central Bank Has Increased Digital Transactions By 645%

A flexible auditing approach adopted by the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) had allowed 110 financial digital services to enter Kuwaiti markets, resulting in a 645 percent increase in digital financial transactions via cellphone since 2016 and a 37 percent decline in in-branch transactions. Using the latest technology is one of the CBK’s key strategies since the earliest days of the banking sector. The strategy had led to the use of bankcards in Kuwait since 1979, the first country to do so in the GCC region. In 1989, the initial seeds for the Shared Electronic Banking Company (KNET) were planted with an actual establishment in 1992. KNET handled in 2021 an estimated 558 million transactions online. Through all these initiatives, the CBK had set a digital strategy that was an integral part of the Kuwait 2030 vision for development. As part of the International Banking Conference "Shaping the Future", held in Kuwait 2019, leading economic and financial figures from around the world pushed for digitizing banking regionally and internationally.

CBK developed KASSIP in 2004, originally designed to handle large transactions, but it could also handle large volumes of smaller transactions. In July 11, 2021, a new KASSIP was launched with an “integrated network of electronic payment systems at par with international standards”; this includes ISO 20022 — an international standard for exchanging electronic messages between financial institutions. The CBK worked on an electronic checks clearing service and launched in June 2015 to substitute the orthodox checks clearing.

By minimizing the service, checks were cleared in one day rather than three. The CBK also launched February of 2019 an online banking service including transfers within the Central Bank as well as transfers between the CBK and other local banks. In 2022, the CBK joined the GCC cross-border payment system (AFAQ) that connected Real Time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGSS). To meet the second goal, the CBK was keen on a comprehensive environment for auditing to boost the banking and financial sector within the realm of digital transactions. The bank issued 2018 a guideline for digital payment to organize the procedure and protect the rights of clients and service providers. A guideline for digital banking was also released by the bank, specifying the services within digital banking as well as the relations between banks and institutes. CBK also opened registrations for independent banks interested in working digitally, providing them with licenses.

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