| Kippreport.com

Kuwait financial sector may draw money launderers – IMF

September 5, 2011 10:23 by Reuters

“Although there is currently no evidence of significant money-laundering in the country, Kuwait’s financial sector is growing rapidly in terms of banking sector assets,” the IMF said in a report published on the fund’s website www.imf.org.

“This development has the potential of creating a suitable environment for money launderers and terrorist financers to exploit,” it said.

The OPEC member has introduced an anti-money laundering law in 2002 regulating financial institutions, but does not criminalize financing of terrorism. A new draft law was sent to the national assembly in 2007 but has not yet been adopted.

Banking assets in Kuwait almost doubled over the past five years to 42.1 billion dinars ($154.5 billion) at the end of June, the central bank’s data showed.

Tags: banking in Kuwait, Kuwait, Kuwait 2011, Kuwait banks, Kuwait financial sector, money laundering, money laundering middle east, money-laundering Kuwait