The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has confirmed that local banks are now ready to resume awarding prizes to customers, after completing the establishment of a comprehensive governance system in line with regulatory controls issued by the relevant authorities, to ensure the highest standards of transparency, integrity, and fairness.

In a statement published on its official website, the Central Bank explained that extensive efforts over the past months have resulted in several key outcomes, most notably verifying banks’ readiness to resume prize draws in full compliance with approved regulatory controls, establishing a unified framework for governance and auditing, and strengthening transparency and integrity in all prize-awarding procedures.

The Central Bank clarified that banks are permitted to offer prizes on certain accounts and banking products only after obtaining the necessary licenses from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

It stressed that, within the framework of reinforcing governance principles and consolidating transparency standards, it has implemented a series of regulatory and supervisory measures to reorganize and tightly control the prize-awarding mechanism.

Strengthening Governance and Oversight

The Central Bank noted from October 2025 to January 2026, banks worked on strengthening their internal frameworks and procedures to enhance governance, transparency, and integrity in prize draws.

The most prominent measures included:

• Appointing a single, unified external auditing firm to supervise all prize draws.
• Adopting a unified document outlining technical and operational requirements for awarding prizes.
• Subjecting all prize draws to external audit review, regardless of the value of the prize.
• Implementing internal audit procedures and incorporating them into approved work plans to ensure full compliance and transparency.

The Central Bank explained that it had issued a circular on March 25, 2025, suspending the awarding of bank prizes in order to re-evaluate products and ensure sound governance and transparency.

This was followed by supervisory inspections between March and May 2025 to review banks’ procedures and verify compliance with the instructions of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

In June 2025, regulatory and technical proposals were prepared based on international best practices and the results of inspections, in preparation for submission to the relevant authorities to ensure clarity and integrity in procedures.

During July 2025, meetings were held with concerned entities to discuss the proposed controls, define responsibilities, and agree on coordination mechanisms for their implementation.

The Central Bank added that between August and September 2025, the Kuwait Banking Association was provided with the detailed controls and requirements that banks must meet in order to resume awarding prizes.

Technical meetings were also held with banks to explain these requirements and ensure full understanding and compliance before any prize draws could be reinstated.

The Central Bank stressed that these steps are aimed at safeguarding customer rights, preventing misuse, and ensuring that all prize draws are conducted in a transparent, fair, and fully regulated manner.