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47,000 Kuwaitis Miss Biometric Deadline, 35,000 Bank Accounts Affected

publish time

01/10/2024

publish time

01/10/2024

47,000 Kuwaitis Miss Biometric Deadline, 35,000 Bank Accounts Affected

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 1: The Ministry of Interior reported that 47,445 Kuwaiti citizens failed to complete their biometric fingerprinting after the deadline passed on 30th September. Meanwhile, banking sources stated that around 35,000 bank customers received notifications yesterday stating that their banking transactions and e-services had been suspended due to incomplete civil ID requirements with the relevant authorities. To continue accessing electronic and digital banking services, customers must meet the biometric fingerprinting requirements linked to the validity of their civil ID.

The Ministry of Interior further noted that 928,684 citizens had completed the biometric fingerprinting process. It emphasized that citizens whose government and banking transactions have been suspended can visit the Personal Investigation Departments under the General Department of Criminal Evidence in their respective governorates to complete the fingerprinting. Once the procedure is finished, the suspension on their transactions will be automatically lifted.

Additionally, the sources pointed out a discrepancy of approximately 12,445 Kuwaitis between the number of bank customers without biometric data and the figures released by the Ministry of Interior. This difference may be attributed to the fact that not every citizen required to submit fingerprints has an active bank account—some may be elderly or face other obstacles. Since some customers hold accounts at multiple banks and received warnings from more than one institution, the actual number of affected bank customers could be lower than 35,000.