FATF — Kuwait Added to the List of Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring (‘Grey List’), 13 February 2026

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — the global standard-setter for anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing (AML/CFT) policy — placed Kuwait on its list of Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring on 13 February 2026, at the conclusion of its plenary meeting of 11–13 February 2026 in Mexico City. Papua New Guinea was added at the same plenary.

This is Kuwait's second listing. It was first placed under increased monitoring in 2012; following a reform programme — enacting Law No. 106 of 2013 on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, establishing the Kuwait Financial Intelligence Unit (KwFIU) as an independent body, forming a National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Committee, and building a legal framework for the immediate implementation of UN Security Council-mandated targeted financial sanctions — it was removed from the list in 2015.

The 2026 listing follows the joint FATF/Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) adopted in June 2024. FATF's own public statement on Kuwait records: 'In February 2026, Kuwait made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and MENAFATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime. Since the adoption of its MER in June 2024, Kuwait has made significant progress on the vast majority of its MER's recommended actions, including adopting a new national AML/CFT/CPF strategy, further improving its technical compliance framework for TF and PF targeted financial sanctions, further enhancing its understanding of ML and TF risks and conducting risk-based outreach and supervision of financial institutions and DNFBPs.'

The listing nonetheless commits Kuwait to a specific FATF action plan, in FATF's own words: '(1) enhancing outreach to real estate agents and DPMSs on STR reporting, including through distribution of sector-based indicators of ML/TF; (2) ensuring that beneficial ownership information in the registry is accurate, and applying effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions in cases of inaccurate information where appropriate; (3) increasing ML investigations and prosecutions in relation to cross-border movements of currency and BNIs [bearer-negotiable instruments].' The listing therefore records outstanding effectiveness gaps, not an absence of reform effort — technical compliance has reportedly improved; the deficiencies FATF identifies are in real-world enforcement outcomes specifically.

USE IN A REPORT: this listing is itself now a primary, dateable country-risk fact for any AML/CFT compliance file, correspondent-banking risk assessment, or KYC/EDD process touching a Kuwait-domiciled or Kuwait-nexus subject — under most FATF-aligned regimes (including the UK Money Laundering Regulations 2017, reg. 33's list of factors triggering Enhanced Due Diligence), grey-list status is treated as a standing risk factor independent of any adverse information about the specific subject involved.

A financial-crime/regulatory designation, not an immigration or human-rights one — the first entry of this kind on this record, included because Dossier's own remit is public, sourced material about Kuwait generally, not only the Bidoon/statelessness material that has occupied it so far. For AML/CFT compliance purposes specifically, this listing is arguably the single most consequential fact currently on this record: it now constitutes a standing Enhanced Due Diligence trigger for Kuwait-nexus relationships under most FATF-aligned regimes, independent of anything else known about a particular subject. Worth periodic review — FATF re-assesses listed jurisdictions and can remove Kuwait once its action plan is judged complete, as happened after the 2012–2015 listing.