The Competition Protection Authority is to explore its opinion on the establishment of a new company similar to the automated banking services company “Knet”, before contracting with KPMG International.
A local Arabic daily quoting sources pointed out to avoid the possibility of the agency officials objecting to the intersection of the two companies in the same owners a legal executive discussion with bank officials was help about whether it is better to review ‘Competition Protection’ to foresee its opinion regarding the establishment of ‘Knet 2’ first, on the basis that the list of owners of the two companies is the same, namely the banks. or, contract directly with the global consultant and pay the cost of the study, which is liable to be lost if the agency objects to the establishment of the company in the proposed form.
In order to follow the correct procedural ladder, the officials of the banks concerned with this file decided to elicit the opinion of “Protection of Competition” first, regarding the vision presented for regulating payments locally, which comes according to the banks’ point of view in response to the comprehensive development requirements targeted by the supervisory regulator and banks, in order to ensure the operational purposes of the prospective company To be a rival to “Knet” with broader and more comprehensive activities than the existing ones, as in this case the banks avoid paying any advisory expenses for a process not approved by the supervision of “competition protection”.
It is expected that the company to be established will include banks and finance companies themselves, in line with 8 ambitious sub-projects that will be launched in two phases within the Kuwait National Payments System.
It is noteworthy that the new requirements within the Kuwait National Payments System project require the addition of new activities, which are not currently available at Knet, and therefore it is better to establish a new company, and perhaps companies capable of meeting the accelerating needs, unlike Knet, which is expected to continue to develop Implementation of its business model, which is currently limited to “Points of Sale” and “ATM” as a gateway for payments to bank customers and settlements between banks.
Knet 2 is supposed to keep pace with the radical developments that the world is witnessing and represent a real challenge to the current banking and financial system related to “fintech” in all its forms, especially in light of the entry of major technology companies to the line of providing cross-border banking and financial services that are not restricted by traditional regulatory systems.
The sources said that the Banking Committee’s moves to establish a company to keep pace with developments come within the regulatory directions towards adopting the continuous development processes led by the Central Bank on several levels, in its infrastructure as a watchdog and regulator.
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