The Central Bank of Kuwait has directed all licensed exchange companies in the country to adopt the government’s My Identity mobile application as a mandatory customer authentication tool for online international money transfers.
Under the directive, exchange companies must authenticate customers through the app before processing digital remittances and must document all verification procedures. The measure is framed as a security and transparency enhancement designed to prevent unauthorized transfers where electronic applications may be exploited to move funds without the account holder’s knowledge. Authentication through My Identity ensures that the customer, the transferring entity, and regulatory authorities can each verify that the individual executing the transaction is the legitimate account holder rather than a fraudster impersonating user data, according to sources cited in the coverage.
The My Identity app, known in Arabic as Hawiyati, is operated by Kuwait’s Public Authority for Civil Information. It enables citizens and residents to access government and private-sector services without a physical civil ID, and provides identity verification, digital signatures, electronic authentication, a document wallet, and a digital civil ID card. To implement the Central Bank directive, all financial transfer service providers must establish electronic integration with PACI. Major exchange companies are described as already linked; others will need to upgrade technical systems within a Central Bank-set compliance timeframe.
The directive builds on an app platform already strengthened for high-assurance use cases. PACI’s multi-level MY KUWAIT ID app was enhanced in late 2024 with three progressive verification tiers including NFC-chip authentication, the same infrastructure that exchange companies must now connect to. The remittance authentication requirement follows the logic of Kuwait’s biometric registration mandate for government services, which established digital identity as a non-negotiable access requirement across the public sector before extending the model into private financial services.
The policy particularly affects Kuwait’s large expatriate workforce. Kuwait’s fingerprinting mandate for expatriates, enacted at the end of 2024, tied Civil ID access to biometric enrollment, making the My Identity authentication requirement a logical extension for the same population that depends on exchange companies for overseas remittances. No specific compliance deadline or effective date was stated in the coverage reviewed; the Central Bank is described as overseeing sector-wide implementation.
Sources: Times Kuwait, PACI Hawiyati, Central Bank of Kuwait
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
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