The Central Bank of Kuwait recently directed banks to abide by the promises they make to their customers, including the accrued discount rate of interest in cases of early loan repayment, regardless of whether the promise was made by a senior official in the bank or an ordinary employee, as long as It carries the capacity of communicating with the customer in the name of the bank, even through a ‘WhatsApp’ message.
The sources revealed that a client complained to the supervisory regulator authority that he wanted to make early payment of a debt owed by him to one of the banks that operate in accordance with Islamic law, and that the employee in question negotiated with him the amount of return that could be waived, for the remaining period in the event of rearranging the terms of his contract, reports a local Arabic daily.
According to the Central Bank instructions, the customer has the right to benefit from dropping part of the profits due to the bank for the remaining period of his loan, according to the instructions prescribed in this regard.
The sources indicated that the bank employee in the case raised offered the customer a discount of 70 percent of the value of the profits recorded on his financing, which he obtained in the form of tawarruq, after discussions initiated by the employee with 50 percent.
The complainant pointed out that he later received a WhatsApp message from the bank employee, informing him of obtaining this percentage of the discount if he proceeded with the decision to pay early for his debt, indicating that after expressing his approval, the employee retracted, and pointed out that the higher management did not agree to the proposed discount percentage from Before him, and agreed to a discount rate not to exceed 50 percent of the profits.
For its part, ‘Central’ opened an investigation into the complaint, and concluded that the concerned bank violated professional banking behavior and confirmed that this behavioral error will not be repeated in the future, and that this supervisory directive applies to all banks, in order to enhance the well-known banking reputation Its locally trusted.
Although the Central Bank did not obligate the bank to grant the complaining customer the 70 percent discount, and was satisfied with the warning, it stressed the need for banks to abide by and bear responsibility for everything that their employees issue to customers, whether in written form or through letters, given that reversing the information provided to the customer leads This leads to the latter’s loss of confidence in his bank, and his reluctance to make his decision increases, for fear of a change in the bank’s behavior with him later, or in a more precise sense, that the customer cannot make his decision permanently if he loses confidence in the bank.
According to the Central Bank’s instructions, a customer of any Islamic bank can expedite the payment of the rest of the financing amount, before the repayment period expires at any time, or reschedule his old loan through the same bank or through another bank, provided that he has paid 30% of the loan amount.
The amount of the return is determined according to his bank’s method of calculating the discount, a percentage that varies from one bank to another and from one customer to another.
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