In compliance with the Central Bank of Kuwait, all the banks operating in the State of Kuwait are introducing the
IBAN – “International Bank Account Number”, the new internationally recognized bank account format for faster, error-free fund transfers, with effect from 1st January 2011.
The IBAN for Kuwait consists of 30 characters which contains the country code ‘KW’, check digit number (2 digits), Bank code (BKME) and the basic account number (the existing 8 digits account number preceded by 14 zeros). The check digits are calculated according to “ISO/IEC 7064 (Mod 97-10)”.
Eg: KWXX BKME 0000 0000 0000 00XX XXXX XX
Question & Answers
IBAN stands for International Bank Account Number. It is the ISO 13616 International standard for numbering bank accounts. This is an extended format of the existing bank account number. An IBAN contains information relating to the country, bank and branch of the beneficiary as well as the account number itself.
The existing bank account numbers will remain the same and will not be changed. The bank will generate the IBAN format for each of your bank accounts which also contains the existing account number. The IBAN will be communicated to the account owners through various channels.
IBAN in Kuwait is introduced by the instruction of Central Bank of Kuwait to standardize the identification, format and length of bank accounts across all banks in Kuwait for faster, error-free fund transfers.
It was originally adopted by European Committee for Banking Standards.
Currently all European non-CIS countries, as well as Tunisia, Mauritius, Turkey, Lebanon & Saudi Arabia participates in the IBAN system.
The format and length of the IBAN varies from country to country. The IBAN is not a single account number structure to replace the existing account number. Instead, it is a way of representing the existing account numbers in a standard recognizable format which can be validated using the check digits.
IBAN follows the international standard established by the International Standards Organization (ISO). An IBAN consists of additional characters placed in front of the existing bank account number.
The fixed length of IBAN for the State of Kuwait is 30 characters.
The following is an example of an IBAN for an existing 8 digits account number ‘12345678’ with AUBK:
KWXX BKME 00000000000000 XXXXXXXX
This IBAN is constructed as follows:
| KW | Country Code for the State of Kuwait |
| XX | Check digits for validation |
| BKME | First four letters of the Bank Identifier Code |
| 0000 0000 0000 00XX XXXX XX | Customer Account Number preceded by 14 Zeros to achieve the required fixed length for the account number. |
Implementation of IBAN will help to reduce errors and delays in either receiving payments or making payments into or from your account. IBAN helps to facilitate improvement in the quality of information exchanged between the banks involved in receiving or making payments, either within the State of Kuwait or internationally.
AUBK will issue IBAN for each of your account(s). The IBANs are derived from the existing AUBK account numbers. Only the bank where the account(s) are held can generate and provide the account owner(s) with IBANs.
AUBK does not charge any fee to notify the IBAN for any of the existing or new accounts with AUBK.
As AUBK customer, you should use IBAN for your fund transfers and also encourage the use of IBAN by all parties who send payments to you, both within the State of Kuwait and internationally.
You must provide your IBAN on all your Invoices and Requests for Payment. Your vendors and other customers must provide your IBAN number in their transfer instructions along with other beneficiary information that they normally provide to their banks.
Similarly, when you make payments, please include the IBAN of the Beneficiary wherever applicable, in the instructions sent to AUBK to process payments.
You should provide your IBAN to Governments, Companies or persons either within Kuwait or any other country, who need to send electronic payments to your bank account.
Prior to making a fund transfer, you should request the beneficiary to provide their account number in IBAN format. To make a fund transfer, you will need to quote the IBAN in the same way they currently quote the Beneficiary’s account instead of quoting only the existing account number.
The IBAN number provided by the beneficiary should then be used by you in your transferinstructions.
If you are an existing AUBK customer, you can get the IBAN from the Internet Banking upon selecting Account Details for the desired account, statement and debit/credit advices or by calling your account manager, our 24 Hours support Call Center on Tel. No. 1812000 or any of our Branches.