Subordination of Kuwait Credit Bank to be transferred to MoF

KUWAIT CITY: According to government sources, the Cabinet is planning to issue a decree to transfer the subordination of Kuwait Credit Bank from the State Ministry for Housing Affairs to the Ministry of Finance.

This step is aimed to restore the situation to that of about 50 years since the enactment of the law establishing the Credit and Savings Bank in 1965, which ended up being under the State Ministry of Housing Affairs more than ten years ago, reports Al-Rai daily.

They described the government’s approach to a rescue plan for Kuwait Credit Bank with the increasing financial pressures it is exposed to, and the voices that warn the bank will run out of liquidity, which could end up stopping its activities unless suitable financing alternatives are found.

The sources explained that the credit bank, since its inception, remained under the umbrella of the Ministry of Finance with its financial information, data and analytical capabilities in the real estate field, which constituted a reference to the bank throughout that period.

The dependency transferred more than ten years ago to the State Ministry of Housing Affairs.

The bank has lost one of the most important financial tools on which it relies in its work, especially as it is considered an institution specialized in real estate financing, and is therefore supposed to be one of the institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Finance.

Despite the succession of several housing ministers in charge of the credit bank, and the warnings issued more than once about the need to find appropriate solutions, none of them took real action to save the bank, which today is facing the threat of losing the liquidity necessary for the continuation of mortgage financing in the distribution of housing.

The sources stressed the importance of the expected step by the government to re-attach the Kuwait Credit Bank to the Ministry of Finance, given that the latter is responsible for financial policy and supervises most of the parties concerned with investment and finance, in addition to what it possesses in terms of competence and tools concerned with real estate financing, which constitutes the main competence of the bank in a clear and financially applicable strategies that keep pace with the housing policy at the same time.

The sources indicated that, “This step will not be new, as it is returning the credit bank to the position it had been in for about 50 years before its affiliation was transferred to the Ministry of Housing Affairs.”