Bedoun, needy students to benefit from KD7 mn charity fund: official

‘Submit applications on official website with all necessary documents’

CBK asks banks for ‘details’ on loans granted to board of directors’ members, credit facilities

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 17: According to informed sources, the Central Bank of Kuwait has requested all banks for a list of the loans granted to members of their boards of directors, as well as the credit facilities provided to the parties to which these members and their relatives are affiliated, reports AlRai daily.

They said it is expected that the bank statement submitted will be regarding the status of the borrowing board members with each bank both quantitatively and qualitatively.

The sources explained that the Central Bank’s move to request clarification of the loans obtained by each member of the boards of directors of banks and the parties related to them, if any, in detail comes within the control policy aimed at reducing the risks of concentration on specific customers in the credit portfolios of banks, and to ensure there is no violation of regulatory instructions in this regard.

The Central Bank is currently working on determining the size and weight of the members’ loans from the credit portfolio of each bank based on the statements it will receive from the banks. This is in preparation for studying any repercussions it may have on the status of the banking sector on one hand, and on the overall monetary policy on the other. The supervisory request in this regard is traditional and does not reflect any emergency risks.

Credit

The Central Bank sets quantitative ratios for the maximum limits of credit concentrations on a single customer. It always asks about the conditions of the 25 largest clients of each bank in order to determine the large exposures, the risks of concentrations of its credit clients, and the mechanism that these banks follow in terms of follow-up and risk management.

In this regard, the sources stressed that the Central Bank this time apparently wanted to expand the scope of its information on concentration to include the required credit statements from the segment of bank board members.

The interest in limiting the facilities of members of the boards of directors of banks is part of the supervisory policy that aims to reduce the risks of concentrations, which is one of the strengths or weaknesses highlighted in the reports of international rating agencies on Kuwaiti banks or the banking sector in general. The credit concentrations in general contain larger risks in the event that the customer stumbles, which requires regular follow-up.

Limit

The Central Bank sets a maximum limit for concentration operations so that the rate of any client does not exceed 15 percent of the bank’s capital in its comprehensive concept, which includes capital, reserves, profits and capital bonds/sukuk. On a related level, the sources indicated that the Central Bank also requested from the banks a statement with the names of the shareholders in each bank whose contribution percentage of each of them exceeds five percent of the bank’s capital.

They said this will be with the intention of clarifying the structure of the main owners in each bank, and linking it to any financing operations for its owners.

The sources explained that it seems the Central Bank does not prefer relying solely on the disclosures published on the Kuwait Stock Exchange website, which are usually limited to showing the owners of large properties that exceed five percent of the bank’s capital, with the exception of disclosures that are announced at the time and do not appear continuously. The supervisory regulator aims at creating a more accurate and direct database than the bank itself, which has a record of its shareholders and their movement on an ongoing basis.

Meanwhile, other relevant sources revealed that the Central Bank of Kuwait has asked banks to close the accounts of an unlisted agricultural company after it repeatedly issued cheques to clients with insufficient balances to cover these cheques.

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 17: The Private and Qualitative Education Sector of the Ministry of Education, is receiving applications for registration in the Charity Fund for the Care of Stateless (bedoun) Students and the needy for academic year 2021-2022, from today, Sunday, reports Al-Anba daily.

In this regard, the Director of Educational Affairs has assigned in the General Administration of Private Education, Vice-President of the Charity Fund, Mansour Al-Mansour, who said for the first time, applications be received in this regard from the deserving students which should be submitted on the official website https://privateeducationkw.com/charitable-fund/, complete with all necessary documents.

Al-Mansour said after uploading the documents on the website the applicants must get in touch with the Ministry of Education building in Mubarak Al-Kabeer from Sunday to Wednesday from 4:00 pm until 7:00 pm, by booking an appointment on the ‘Meta’ platform to verify the validity of the documents that have been submitted.

Al-Mansour indicated the charity fund will continue to receive applications from students who meet the admission requirements for about a month, he explained that the estimated budget of the fund for the current academic year 2021-2022 is about 7 million dinars, from which more than 18 thousand students benefit.