KUWAIT CITY, Nov 24: Kuwait’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Sunday it has completed the removal of 73,700 inactive companies from the commercial register as part of a wide-ranging 2024–2025 project aimed at strengthening transparency and improving the country’s beneficial ownership system.

The ministry stated that the clean-up, conducted in coordination with several government agencies, also involved updating the records of thousands of companies to ensure the accurate disclosure of their beneficial owners.

In a statement, the ministry said that the project’s first phase resulted in fines being imposed on 2,845 commercial registrations for failing to disclose beneficial ownership. Each entity was fined 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars (about USD 3,255), amounting to a total of 2.845 million dinars (about USD 6.5 million). A second phase imposed fines on another 1,836 registrations for the same violation, with each fined 2,000 dinars (about USD 6,511), bringing the total to 3.672 million dinars (about USD 9.2 million).

The ministry stated that awareness campaigns, workshops, media content, and a guidance manual increased compliance, resulting in a registration rate of 98.62 percent by October 2025, up from 42.8 percent at the end of 2024.

To verify disclosures, the ministry sends authentication requests through the “My Identity” application, confirming the electronic identity of the declared beneficial owner. After authentication, an official notice is issued via the government e-services platform “Sahel” for the owner to verify the accuracy of the data. Any discrepancies must be corrected by contacting the ministry.

The ministry stated that the purpose of maintaining a beneficial owner register is to enhance transparency by identifying the true owner or controller of a company, thereby preventing hidden ownership and the use of shell entities. It added that transparency ensures accurate data reflecting the real activity of businesses and exposes concealed relationships.

It stated that the register also supports compliance with Recommendation 24 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), thereby reinforcing Kuwait’s adherence to international standards. Effective compliance, the ministry noted, strengthens the country’s ranking, supports national risk assessments, and bolsters the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework.

Strengthened oversight enables regulatory authorities to have immediate access to ownership and control data, facilitating the detection of commercial concealment, analysis of suspicious patterns, and support for investigations — ultimately protecting the business environment and reducing economic risks.

The ministry said it will hold a workshop on beneficial ownership on Monday at 10:00 a.m. in Al-Durra Hall at the Ministries Complex. The event is being organized in cooperation with the Capital Markets Authority, the Central Bank of Kuwait, the Insurance Regulatory Unit, and the Financial Intelligence Unit.

The workshop aims to raise awareness of emerging risks in the corporate sector, outline the development of the beneficial ownership registry since early 2025, and present the ministry’s plans for future improvements. It will also underline the importance of maintaining up-to-date beneficial ownership information, enabling financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions to understand the concept and its requirements better.

The ministry stated that Kuwait has made significant recent efforts to deepen the public and private sectors' understanding of beneficial ownership rules, noting that the service now allows entities to search and view company registration details — a step it said enhances confidence in the business climate and supports national transparency and accountability goals.

The beneficial owner, it added, is defined as the natural person who directly or indirectly benefits from or controls a transaction, contract, or asset, whether personally or through intermediaries, and must be disclosed under national regulations to ensure transparency and combat financial crimes.