The Competition Protection Authority (CPA) has begun extrapolating all banking data for the years 2019 and 2020, as part of its moves to study the economic concentration that could result from the merger deal of Kuwait Finance House (KFH) and Ahli United Bank (AUB) , and to ensure that there is no banking control in the local market, which indicates that the authority has begun examining the deal from its side.
Al-Rai has learned from relevant sources that the authority has requested the concerned authorities to provide the financial statements of all banks operating in accordance with Islamic law in Kuwait for the two specified years, to study the expected impact on the market from the merger of KFH and AUB in a manner that ensures the prevention of monopolistic practices in dealing with applications in future.
According to the letter of ‘Protection of Competition’, a banker must provide the following:
1 – Financial statements for the years ending in 2019 and 2020 for all Islamic banks.
2 – Financial statements of loans granted during the years ending in 2019 and 2020 for all Islamic banks.
3 – The total value of deposits (individuals, companies) for all Islamic banks for the years ending in 2019 and 2020.
4 – The total number of customers (individuals, companies) for all Islamic banks for the years ending in 2019 and 2020.
5 – Total loans granted to customers (individuals, companies) for all Islamic banks for the years ending in 2019 and 2020.
6 – Data and studies related to the subject in question — the merger of KFH and AUB.
The “Protection of Competition” pointed out that its request in this regard is based on paragraph (4) of Article 16 of Law No. (72) of 2020, which states that the authority is concerned with conducting studies and research necessary to analyze the various methods of dealing in the markets to detect cases harmful to competition and monopolistic practices and submit them to the Council.” Entities submit the data and documents required of them to the device.
Based on this letter, each bank operating in accordance with Islamic law in Kuwait will have to provide data related to its budgets for 2019 and 2020 within 5 working days from the date of the letter.