KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) pursues its support of the "Let’s Be Aware” banking awareness campaign launched by the Central Bank of Kuwait, in cooperation with Kuwait Banking Association (KBA), reflecting its commitment to raise financial culture and awareness among all segments of society and achieve financial inclusion.
During this campaign, NBK intensified publishing educational and promotional content on all its social media platforms, including posts and video clips warning against the risks of money laundering and financing of terrorism as well as showing their various evolving techniques. Recognizing its role as the leading financial institution in Kuwait, NBK frequently organizes different activities that help raise awareness about all topics related to the banking sector. It also organizes a wide range of activities and training courses to enhance employees’ knowledge about combating fraud and financial crime, and combating money laundering and financing of terrorism.
NBK also employs various tools to promote financial inclusion through all its banking products and services, training courses provided to graduates and students, in line with its commitment to deliver on its responsibilities towards society, and achieve sustainable development. Money laundering involves masking the sources of large illicit proceeds to make it look legitimate by integrating it into the financial system using many different ways such as shell companies having no business activity, physical transactions, assets or employees, which are seemingly legitimate business entities that are used to raise money, fund startup operations, or manage mergers or acquisitions.
NBK explained that the new common technique of money laundering is introducing money into the financial system by dividing it into many different deposits and investments. Afterwards, the money is mixed, integrated, and returned to criminals in the form of seemingly legitimate proceeds or clean money. Money launderers typically tend to invest in high-value, small-sized and easily movable commodities like precious stones and gold as well as in valuable assets like real estate properties and selling them cautiously.
NBK is committed to supporting all the Central Bank of Kuwait’s endeavors to protect the reputation of Kuwait and its economy, and to improve the strength and integrity of the banking and financial sector. To this end, the bank makes consistent efforts to educate its customers as a fundamental part of its strategy, using all its communication channels to familiarize them with the various emerging techniques used by fraudsters in money laundering and financing of terrorism.
It is worth mentioning that NBK is a key supporter and partner in all the initiatives and campaigns of the Central Bank of Kuwait. In this context, the bank harnesses its huge capabilities and all its digital channels, which the most popular among all Kuwaiti banks, to boost customers’ trust, and familiarize them with their rights and ways to protect their data, accounts and money, through frequent publications and competitions.