Your detail in shoun being linked with your bank for confirmation of salary and transfers.

If you are a private sector worker in Kuwait, especially one earning a low monthly wage, here is what you need to do: check with your bank that your contact details are correct, and expect extra questions before you can withdraw or transfer certain amounts from now on.

The Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) has started an electronic link with the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK). The goal is simple: make sure private sector salaries actually reach the workers they belong to, without anyone else interfering along the way.

What exactly has changed?

Until now, wage payments for private sector staff moved through banks mostly based on data supplied by employers. The new system adds a direct electronic link between PAM and the Central Bank of Kuwait, so both bodies can watch salary payments more closely.

The Central Bank has told commercial banks they have 3 months to complete the registration of employer data inside the wage payment system. This is the system banks use to process salary transfers for private sector companies. Once this registration is complete, every employer’s payroll details should be properly recorded and checked against PAM’s own records.

Who does this protect, and how?

The new rules focus on lower-paid workers, specifically those earning up to KD 300 a month. For this group, banks must now use two-factor authentication, meaning a second security check, not just a password or card, before money moves out of their account.

Here is the key rule: for any withdrawal or transfer of KD 25 or more, the bank must verify the identity of the person receiving the money and get their approval for that specific transaction. This applies even if someone else has access to the account or claims to be acting for the worker.

Banks are also required to link these authentication methods directly to the worker, the actual beneficiary of the wage, rather than simply trusting the contact details an employer provided. In practice, this means banks need to independently confirm a worker’s phone number or other contact information instead of taking the employer’s word for it.

So what should workers and employers actually do?

1. Workers earning up to KD 300 a month should make sure their bank has their correct, personal phone number on file, not one belonging to an employer or agent.
2. Expect a confirmation step, such as an SMS code or app approval, before withdrawing or transferring KD 25 or more.
3. Employers should check with their bank that staff payroll data is being registered correctly in the wage payment system before the 3-month deadline passes.
4. Banks need to review their authentication systems now, since the Central Bank of Kuwait has set the registration deadline and expects compliance across the sector.
5. If a transaction on your wage account is blocked or delayed, treat it as the new verification step working, not as a system error, and contact your bank to confirm your details.

You can find more local news from Kuwait on how these kinds of rules affect daily life for residents here.

What this means for people living in Kuwait

For lower-income private sector workers, many of whom are domestic workers or labourers paid near or below KD 300 a month, this adds a real layer of protection. It makes it harder for a third party, whether an employer, agent or anyone else, to withdraw or move a worker’s salary without that worker’s direct, verified approval.

For employers, it means payroll data has to be accurate and properly registered with banks before the deadline. Delays or incorrect records could cause payment problems once the system is fully active.

For banks, the message from the Central Bank of Kuwait is clear: passing an authentication check once is not enough. Banks are still expected to watch for signs of pressure on an account, meaning they must stay alert even after a transaction has technically been approved. This suggests regulators are aware that some workers could be pressured or coerced into approving withdrawals that aren’t really theirs to approve.

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