Kuwait Decision No. 37 of 2013 — the Executive Regulation of the AML/CFT Law: supervisors by sector, risk assessment, identification, PEPs, high-risk countries, wire transfers and reporting within two working days

Issued by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on 12 June 2013 under Law No. 106 of 2013, in force on publication in the Official Gazette (Art. 26).

SUPERVISORS (Art. 1(5)). The Central Bank of Kuwait for banks, exchange companies and finance companies; the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for insurance companies, agents and brokers, exchange organisations, real estate agents, dealers in precious metals and stones, and accountants; the Capital Markets Authority for investment companies, securities and financial brokers, underwriters, asset managers, mutual funds and custodians; and the Kuwait Bar Association, as a self-regulatory body, for lawyers. Insurance supervision has since passed to the Insurance Regulatory Unit established by Law No. 125 of 2019.

DEFINITIONS (Art. 1). A politically exposed person is anyone who is or was entrusted with a prominent public function in Kuwait or abroad, or a prominent function in an international organisation, and includes family members up to the second degree and close associates. Enhanced due diligence includes more monitoring, more information on the customer and on the intended nature of the relationship, and further information on the source of funds or of wealth.

RISK (Art. 2–4). Policies and procedures, including customer acceptance, reviewed and endorsed periodically; a documented, current risk assessment covering customers, countries or areas, products and services, and delivery channels, available to the supervisor on request.

IDENTIFICATION (Art. 5–6). Customers and beneficial owners are identified with the Civil ID for citizens and residents, a passport or travel document for non-residents, the commercial licence for resident companies or the documents of the country of incorporation for others, and documents proving a representative's authority. The threshold for occasional transactions under Art. 5 of the Law is KD 3,000.

PEPs (Art. 7). For a foreign PEP: senior management approval, reasonable measures to identify the source of wealth and of funds, and enhanced ongoing monitoring. For a domestic PEP or one of an international organisation: the same measures where the risk is high.

HIGH-RISK COUNTRIES (Art. 8). The measures the Financial Intelligence Unit imposes — enhanced due diligence, senior management approval, increased monitoring, and limits on correspondent relationships, branches and transactions.

CORRESPONDENT BANKING AND WIRE TRANSFERS (Art. 9–10). Information on and approval of a respondent institution; originator and beneficiary information with every wire transfer.

NEW PRODUCTS, CONTROLS, RECORDS, TRAINING, RELIANCE (Art. 11–15). Risk assessment of new products and technologies; group-wide controls; records available to the supervisor; ongoing training; reliance on a third party for due diligence only with the supervisor's approval, the responsibility remaining with the institution.

REPORTING (Art. 16). A suspicion about a transaction or an attempted transaction, whatever its value, is reported to the Kuwait Financial Intelligence Unit within two working days.

SUPERVISION AND THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE (Art. 17–25). Supervisors issue instructions and inspect; the National AML/CFT Committee, chaired by the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, sets the national strategy and assesses national risk (Art. 19 as amended by Ministerial Decision No. 51 of 2016).

For due diligence on a Kuwaiti counterparty this is the operative text: it says who supervises each kind of business, and it is where Kuwait's rules on PEPs differ from the UK's — enhanced measures always for a foreign PEP, and for a domestic PEP only where the risk is high.