Kuwait orders two-factor checks on low-wage salary accounts from December 31

Summary

• Central Bank requires dual verification on transfers of 25 dinars or more from salary accounts.
• Rule covers private-sector staff earning 300 dinars or less monthly, effective December 31, 2026.
• Aim is to block fictitious payrolls and employers forcing workers to return wages.

The latest

Private-sector workers in Kuwait earning 300 dinars a month or less will soon need two separate verification steps to move money out of their salary accounts. According to Arab Times, citing Central Bank of Kuwait instructions to local banks, the requirement applies to every withdrawal, transfer or payment of 25 dinars or more and takes effect on December 31, 2026.

Details

• The threshold: The instructions target salary accounts of private-sector employees whose monthly pay is 300 Kuwaiti dinars or less, according to Arab Times. Any outgoing withdrawal, transfer or payment of 25 dinars or more triggers the stricter requirement, placing the control at the point where money leaves the account rather than when it arrives.
• How verification works: Banks must confirm the employee's identity and consent for each individual transaction using two separate verification factors drawn from two different categories, Arab Times reported. A single check at the moment of logging into the banking application is explicitly not sufficient.
• What is exempt: The salary deposit itself is not subject to any additional verification, according to the report. The employer's transfer into the account proceeds normally, so the friction falls entirely on outbound movements rather than on payroll disbursement.
• The six-month review: When indicators of suspicion appear, banks must examine the employee's transactions over the preceding six months and compare them against the customer's usual financial behavior, Arab Times reported. The review must also test for any possible links between the employee and the employer or related parties.
• The abuse targeted: The stated purpose is protecting workers' wages and preventing employers from registering fictitious salaries or compelling staff to return funds after they have been deposited, according to Arab Times. The transaction-level consent requirement is designed to make such forced repayments harder to execute quietly.
• The timeline: The instructions enter into force on December 31, 2026, giving local banks a defined window to build transaction-level authentication into their systems and to prepare monitoring capable of flagging salary accounts for retrospective review.
• The wider system: The measures complement the Kuwait Wage Protection System, known as KWPS, which was launched on September 28, 2026, according to Arab Times. The new verification layer sits on top of that framework rather than replacing it.
• The compliance load: Banks carry the operational burden: per-transaction identity and consent confirmation, behavioral baselines for affected customers, and retrospective reviews extending half a year back whenever a suspicion indicator is raised. The instructions did not set out penalties for non-compliance.
• Scope not specified: The number of private-sector employees falling under the 300-dinar threshold was not specified, nor was the volume of salary accounts banks will need to classify before the December deadline.

Background

Kuwait launched its Wage Protection System on September 28, 2026, routing private-sector salaries through monitored banking channels. The new Central Bank instructions extend that oversight past the payment stage to what happens to the money once it reaches the worker's account.

Between the lines

The design points to which abuse the regulator considers most pressing. By exempting the deposit and policing only outflows, the instructions treat the risk as money leaving the worker's account rather than money failing to arrive. The six-month lookback and the explicit instruction to test for employee-employer links suggest suspected recycling of wages back to employers, the practice the measures are stated to prevent.

What's next

Watch whether banks publish customer guidance before December 31, 2026, and whether the Central Bank issues follow-up instructions setting penalties or extending the 300-dinar threshold once the regime takes effect.

Source: Arab Times