KUWAIT CITY, Aug 30, (KUNA): Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah said Monday the bank would introduce the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) system in a bid to modernize the country’s banking system.

“The move stems from the CBK’s keenness to improve the service and keep pace with the latest developments in the world’s banking industry,” Sheikh Salem said in statements to KUNA here.
“The CBK has set up a taskforce to study the standardization of banking accounts at local banks. It has also put together a plan to implement the project in stages in coordination with the local banks,” Sheikh Salem revealed.

“Under the IBAN, each account has a code consisting of 30 digits and letters some of which stand for the client’s nationality, bank and the account number.
“The IBAN covers the all local and international transactions and ensures several benefits for the banking sector on top of which are; governing the incoming and outgoing transfers of funds, and contributing to the safety of financial data and the direct automatic execution of transactions in an accurate and fast way,” he explained.

“The CBK will finalize the restructuring of Kuwait’s banking sector according to the new system and register the sector at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the operator of IBAN, as of 2011, he added.
IBAN, an international standard for identifying bank accounts across national borders with a minimal of risk of propagating transcription errors, was first adopted by the European Committee for Banking Standards (ECBS).