Terms & Conditions

First: General Terms and Conditions for All Types of Accounts for Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait:

In addition to the terms and conditions particular to each type of the accounts listed in the designated paragraph, and to other terms and conditions stipulating any other services, the following terms and conditions shall apply to all types of accounts:

1. The operation of the account shall be assigned to its holder (the Customer), his representative, his legal delegate or his proxy. No expiration of the capacity of operates the account shall be recognized by the Bank unless the Bank receives a written notification, thereof.
2. The Customer hereby authorizes the Bank to collect the amounts of the commercial papers and the other Banking transactions and to credit the net value, thereof, to his account with the Bank.
3. The Bank shall have the right to automatically deduct from the Customer’s account all expenses related to maintaining the account, plus commissions as well as any amounts credited to his account by error. In addition to the commissions received by K-Net for using the card, as well as the commissions and charges approved by CBK.
4. All Customer’s accounts with the Bank, at present or in the future, shall be deemed securing each other, not with standing their nature, names or currencies, and the Bank shall have the right to enter a debit entry in the debit side of any such accounts, any amount due to the Bank from the Customer to settle the debited balance of the other accounts. The Bank shall also have the right to merge and unify any of the Customer’s accounts into one account and to set-off between such accounts, and to transfer from one account to another, in order to settle the Bank’s claims, without the need of requiring the Customer’s prior consent. Further, all the Customer’s deposits of commercial papers and securities, precious metals and others, or any of its branches, or subsidiaries inside or outside the State of Kuwait shall be deemed pledged in the Bank’s favor to secure the fulfillment of all the Customer’s obligations towards the Bank.
5. The account statements which are sent by the Bank to the Customer, to the address kept with the Bank shall be deemed correct unless the Bank receives a written objection from the Customer within fifteen days from the date of dispatching the statement to him via regular mail; the Customer shall be deemed to have received the account statement if the same is not requested within fifteen days from the agreed date on which the same should have been sent to the Customer. The Bank shall not be held responsible for any damages resulted from mail services such as delay, loss of mail or disclosure of the confidentiality thereof as a result of the same or for any other reasons.
6. The Bank’s books and entries shall be conclusive evidence to prove the rights and obligations of the Customer while dealing with the Bank, and the Customer may not object to the correctness thereof, by any means whatsoever, unless the Customer proves otherwise.
7. The Bank shall have the right to charge interest to the debit account on daily basis. Such interest shall be calculated at the maximum contractual interest rate imposed by the Central Bank of Kuwait for debit balances in Kuwaiti Dinars and at the highest rate that the Bank applies on debit balances in foreign currencies. Nevertheless, the Bank shall have the right to request the Customer to settle the debited balance immediately.
8. The Customer hereby authorizes the Bank to irrevocably exchange and obtain any information about him/her and his/her accounts from other Banks and institutions participating in the risk control system without any responsibility whatsoever on the Bank in respect thereof.
9. The bank shall have the right to set aside at its own discretion any transferred funds to the customer’s accounts in the event of any doubt that a money laundering or terrorist financing transactions is involved, without any responsibility on the bank.
10. The Customer declares his full responsibility and his knowledge of the consequences resulting from all deposit transactions which are credited to his account from any person or party, unless he objects to it within 15 days from the date of the statement incorporating such deposit or from the date of his knowledge of it by any other means whichever is earlier.
11. The Bank shall have the right, at any time, to close the account without the need to state any reasons thereof, and the Customer shall be obliged, upon being notified thereof to deliver to the Bank the saving and cheques books as well as the credit cards, the ATM cards and the likes, and shall be obliged to pay the debit balance and all interests and other amounts becoming due. In all cases, the rate of interest, after closing the account, shall be the same and calculated by the same method used for the calculation of the contractual interest.
12. The Customer’s address specified in this application shall be the selected domicile for any correspondence or notifications to be sent to him/her from the Bank, unless the Bank receives a written notice from the Customer of his new address.
13. The Bank shall have the right, at all times, to amend these terms and conditions as well as the terms and conditions specified for any type of accounts, or the usage of the ATM cards, without the need to obtain the Customer’s consent. The new terms and conditions shall apply to all the accounts of the Customer from the effective date of such new terms and conditions, and its notification thereof shall be made by any means deemed appropriate by the Bank.
14. It is agreed that in the event there is no movement on the account by the Customer or his attorney authorized to manage it for 12 consecutive months, then the account shall be dormant upon the expiry of this period The Bank from this time shall suspend the charge of interest and sending account statements without any liability on the part of the Bank in this regard. The fees and commissions shall be calculated on the dormant account as per Fees & Commissions list approved by Central Bank of Kuwait.
15. It is agreed among all parties concerned that the Customer’s account number consists of the first 10 digits, from left to right. The other three digits represent sub-accounts of the main account. They are entries made by the Bank for internal entry purposes. They include for example but not limited to the entries of the various types of facilities, the deposits, the foreign currencies accounts, fees, commissions and other Banking transactions. The Customer authorizes the Bank to open or close any of these sub-accounts of the main account. He/she also authorizes the Bank to enter the amounts, transfer them from a sub-account to another within the main account as deemed appropriate by the Bank and without obtaining the prior consent of the Customer.
16. The signature form of the Customer shall be valid by the Bank for all his/her transactions in all his/her accounts currently open or that will be opened in the future with the Bank including sub and additional accounts and any account that may be opened at any time through e-ahli online service, unless the Bank receives from the Customer – before opening any of such accounts –written instructions stating otherwise, and acceptable to the Bank as per the regulations applicable. The Customer declares that any sub or additional accounts to be opened at any time, including any account to be opened through ABK tele-Banking service or e-ahli online service, shall be subject to the current terms and conditions that regulate the accounts and amendments thereof.
17. The Customer declares that he/she reads the tariffs of the Banking services approved by the Central Bank of Kuwait and applied to the Bank. He declares that he/she receives a copy thereof. He/she declares that he/she accepts all the fees and commission stated therein and amendments thereof or additions thereto from time to time. He/she undertakes to keep sufficient amounts at any of his/her accounts with the Bank to cover the fees and commissions. The Customer hereby authorizes the Bank to collect such fees and commissions from any credit balances of the Customer’s accounts with the Bank.
18. The Bank shall not resume any liability of any consequences resulted from such collection such as the decrease of credit balance of the account and the non-utilization by the Customer of the advantages of the Banking products accordingly. The Customer undertakes to pay the due interests, fees, commissions and expenses (As per CBK list of charges and fees) on their due dates free and clear of any taxes, duties, assessments or charges of whatsoever nature, reason or by whomsoever imposed, whether currently in effect or to be imposed in the future.

Second: Specific Terms and Conditions for Current Accounts:

1. The Customer’s withdrawals from the account shall be made by using the cheques prepared by the Bank which are delivered to the Customer, or by any other withdrawal document complying with the legal conditions acceptable to the Bank. Also, withdrawals can be made by ATM card or any other Banking card in accordance with the terms and conditions related thereto.
2. I declare that I am only permitted to stop a cheque within the parameters of two scenarios. These scenarios being, the cheque must either have been lost or stolen. With both scenarios, I am obliged to adhere to the bank requirements of official declaration of either. In addition, I am required to visit the nearest branch, with the requirements and if applicable, the settlement of any outstanding fees.
3. The Customer is obliged to maintain the cheque books delivered to him/her and should inform theBank if he/she loses the same or any of his/her cheques. The Customer shall also be solely responsible for all damages which may result from having the cheque book or any of his/her cheques kept with any of his/her followers or a third party.
4. I declare that I am only permitted to stop a cheque within the parameters of two scenarios. These scenarios being, the cheque must either have been lost or stolen. With both scenarios, I am obliged to adhere to the bank requirements of official declaration of either. In addition, I am required to visit the nearest branch, with the requirements and if applicable, the settlement of any outstanding fees.
5. The Bank may refrain from paying any cheques drawn against deposited cheques under collection unless such deposited cheques have been actually collected.
6. The client shall declare his absolute and final consent to comply with the instructions of the Central Bank of Kuwait in respect of closing all his cheque accounts and blacklisting his name in the list of clients whose accounts are closed because of returned cheques withdrawn from him or from any person authorized by him to that effect due to insufficient funds, should a maximum of three cheques with different numbers have been returned within one year due to insufficient funds. Furthermore, he shall declare his prior consent to any other measures that may be taken by the Bank in this regard. The Bank-at its absolute discretion – may open another account for that client without any cheques in replacement of the account which had been closed. The credit facilities, Which were previously granted to the closed account shall be debited to the new account, If any. The Customer shall bear all legal liabilities resulted from his issue of these checks and shall have no right to hold the Bank responsible for closing his account, blacklisting his name in the above mentioned list or any measures taken by the bank in this respect.

Third: Specific Terms and Conditions for Saving Accounts:

1. Withdrawals from the account shall be made by the designated forms, the ATM cards or by any other instrument provided by the Bank in accordance with the rules and regulations applicable thereto.
2. The interest shall be calculated and credited to the account in accordance with the rules applicable at the Bank.
3. No interest shall be calculated on any balance less than the stipulated minimum balance and shall vary according to the currency or the balance denomination.
4. The Bank shall issue an account statement to be sent to the Customer via regular mail to his address kept with the Bank, such statement shall be subject to Paragraphs (5) and (6) of Item (First) of these terms and conditions.

Fourth: Specific Terms and Conditions for Joint Accounts:

1. Withdrawing shall be limited to the person(s) appointed by the account holders.
2. The shares of the account holders shall be deemed equal unless otherwise a written agreement is made and delivered to the Bank at the time of opening the account.
3. All of the account holders are jointly liable towards the Bank for repaying any amounts due to it on this account, notwithstanding the reasons or sources related to such amounts, the Bank may recover such amounts from the credit balance of any individual account kept in the name of any of the account holders or from his share in any other joint account.
4. The account holders agree that the Bank, while setting-off amongst different accounts of one of the joint account holders, may include his share in such joint account within such set-off.
5. The Bank shall have the right to suspend withdrawal from the joint account and distribute its credit balance among its holders, each in accordance with his share in such account and without notification or warning, in the event of any of the following cases.
   1. Attachment is exercised on any of the account partners for any reason and that the share of such partner shall be frozen, accordingly.
   2. The death of any of the account partners or declaring the Bankruptcy or the loss of the legal capacity of any of them and that the share of the deceased, the Bankrupt or the incapacitated shall be frozen, accordingly.
   3. Notification to the Bank by one of the account partners of a dispute between him and any of the other account partners.
6. The Bank shall have the right, on closing or suspending withdrawal from the account, to distribute the credit balance on independent accounts which the Bank shall open in the name of account holders, each according to his share therein, taking into consideration the terms of foregoing paragraph.

Fifth: Specific Terms and Conditions of Fixed Term Deposit Accounts:

1. The interest on fixed term deposit shall be due on the maturity date in accordance with the rates, rules and regulations applicable at the Bank.
2. The term of the deposit shall be automatically extended for a similar period(s) without the need for notice or warning, unless the Bank receives written instructions from the Customer to the contrary.
3. In the event that the Customer requests to redeem the fixed term deposit prior to its due date, and the Bank agrees to this no interest shall become due on the full last interest period thereof.
4. No withdrawal by means of cheques can be made from the fixed term deposit account and no ATM card or credit card may be issued, thereon.

Sixth: Terms and conditions for using ATM, (e-Ahli – Mobile Banking) and Tele-Banking Services:

1. ATM cards and the use of (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) services and the Tele-Banking Services are all subject to ABK’s approval. The Bank may at any time call off the use of the ATM card, its PIN and any other related service (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) or to reject renewal of the same - at any time - without stating the reasons thereof and without any prior notification and the Bank shall not be held responsible of any consequences resulted from the same. The (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) service shall be subject to change without any prior notice.
2. The Customer undertakes to keep his/her card, user’s name and related PINs delivered to him/her. Since the access to (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) service is only possible by using the PIN of the Customer’s ATM card, then the Customer shall declare that he/she bears all the consequences resulted from using PIN to obtain the services of ABK. The use of PIN for accessing such service shall be sufficient reason to hold the Customer responsible for bearing all the consequences of these transactions, even if such transactions are not done by the Customer himself. To assure this issue, the Customer may not argue the validity of the voice recording of his own or of another party as long as the transaction is made by using his/her PIN, unless the Customer notifies the Bank before conducting such transaction that he/she lost the PIN or such PIN is disclosed to another party. The Customer shall not be entitled to claim the voice recordings kept with the Bank after the expiry of the archiving period as per the policy applied by the Bank. He/she shall bear all the damages resulted from leaving his/her cards or PINs to be used by his dependants or third parties. He/she shall bear all the consequences resulted from disclosing, theft, loss or misuse of the card. The Customer shall not respond to any SMS or any e-mails received by him, which denoting as if they are issued by the Bank – requesting him/her to reply to requests, inquiries or updating his/her information/details of whatsoever type or content. In case of his/her reply to the same, then the Customer shall be fully responsible of all the losses resulted from his/her reply.
3. The Customer agrees to keep in his account(s) with the Bank sufficient funds to cover all withdrawals, transfers or transactions relating to the use of the card, the PIN or using the (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) service and the Tele-Banking service through the user’s name and the PIN; the amount of the withdrawals, transfers or transactions should not exceed the limit that is specified by the Bank for daily withdrawals and may not-in any time, for (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) withdrawals or transfers or transactions, to exceed the credit balance of the Customer’s account.
4. All withdrawals, transfers and transactions effected by using the card, the PIN, the (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) and the Tele-Banking servcie will be registered as applicable by the Bank to the Customer’s account(s) designated in the application and to any other Customer’s account(s) with the Bank; the Bank shall have the right to debit any of the Customer’s credit accounts with the Bank towards settlement of the debit balance resulting from any transaction completed using the said service. Statements relating to withdrawals, transfers or transactions completed by the card, (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) or TeleBanking will be considered conclusive evidence on the rights that the Customer owes to the Bank and the Customer agrees thereto.
5. The Bank will not be considered liable for any loss or damage that may result directly or indirectly as a result of a breakdown or damage of the ATM machines or rejection of the card by any of those machines or a POS, the same applies on (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) and Tele-Banking which could reject the user’s name and PIN.
6. In case of issuing additional cards or a user name and PIN for use by other joint persons on the same joint account, each one will be treated as jointly responsible to the Bank for paying all withdrawals, transfers and transactions that are completed on this account using any of the said cards or using any of the users’ names and related PINs.
7. The Customer may use the card, the (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) service or the Tele-Banking for obtaining other services that may be announced from time to time by the Bank against fees and commissions charged by the Bank; the Bank may cancel or change these services related fees and commissions.
8. The card may be cancelled at any time in case it is retained in any of the ATM machines; the (e-Ahli and Mobile Banking) and the Tele-Banking Services may also be canceled in case of losing the user’s name and the PIN; the Bank in this case may issue a new card and a new user’s name and new PIN against additional charges.
9. The bank shall have the right to set aside the funds transferred to or from the customer’s account if such funds are suspected to be money laundering or terrorist financing in accordance with the terms of the law and the discretion of the bank, without any liability on the part of the bank.

Seventh: Terms and Conditions for Banking Transfers:

1. The customer agrees that the bank shall not be responsible for any delay or abstention or completion of the transfer as a result of insufficient funds or error or missing information in the transfer application or transfer order, or in completed data, or imposition of any restrictions on transfers or if the amount withheld or confiscated by local authorities or other state authorities or if there is any suspicion that money laundering or terrorist financing is involved or for any other reason beyond the control of the bank.
2. In the event the Customer agrees to pay the expenses for the corresponding Banks, the Bank shall calculate estimate expenses for such Banks and the Customer shall be bound to pay any other additional expenses claimed by the corresponding Banks.
3. In case the amount of the transfer has not been paid, the determination of the amount which the Customer can claim for a refund shall be the average purchase price of the currency used by the Bank on the same day the transfer has taken place. The Customer cannot claim the refund of the amount of the transfer unless he returns to the Bank what he has received in terms of Bank cheques or other documents issued by it, and after the Bank has received a final notification from its corresponding Bank that the amount of the transfer has not been paid and that the original instructions relating thereto have been cancelled.
4. It is hereby agreed that the Bank and its correspondent Banks shall not be responsible for any consequences resulting from any conflict, delay, oversight, or telegraphic error in the transfer instructions or technical, and the Customer agrees that the Bank and its correspondent Banks shall not be responsible whatsoever if the payment of the amount is delayed in order to obtain the required confirmation for the correctness of names and statements of the transfer order or payment instructions. The Customer shall compensate the Bank and its correspondent Banks for any loss resulting there from; and in all circumstances, the Bank shall not be responsible for any loss resulting from the execution of the transfer or from any error or negligence on the part of any corresponding Bank.
5. In the event the Customer requests a cash transfer to be made between Banks inside Kuwait or UAE the Customer declares his full knowledge that such transfer is based only on the principle of the verifications of the IBAN number of the beneficiary, and the Customer accordingly, releases each of the Bank and the Bank of the beneficiary from any liability towards either of them for verifying the name of the beneficiary or his account number in order to complete this transfer.

Eighth: Other Terms and Conditions:

1. The Customer declares that the address specified in this application shall be the selected domicile for all correspondence related to his accounts with the Bank, and for all disputes or lawsuits arise from such accounts before all grades of litigation and for all the compulsory execution measures. All correspondence, legal or court notifications to be sent to him from the Bank to this address by mail, fax, registered or first class mail shall be true, valid and effective for all legal consequences. The selected domicile of the customer shall be the location which is legally specified for notifying the customer officially and for sending all correspondence to him in terms of all his accounts with the Bank. Any change of this domicile, post office box number, or fax number shall be effective from the date of receiving a notification of such change by a registered mail delivered to the Bank.
2. Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait shall ensure confidentiality of customer information and bank accounts, and may not disclose any information related to customer and their accounts, save in the cases where the customer authorizes the Bank to disclose private bank information to a third party or authorizes the Bank to provide regulatory/ judicial authorities with such private information when required by these authorities.
3. In the event of a conflict between the Arabic and English texts of these terms and conditions, the Arabic text shall prevail.

Ninth: Politically Exposed Person (PEP):

any natural person, whether as customer or beneficial owner, who is or was entrusted with a prominent public function in the State of Kuwait or in a foreign country, such as Head of States or of governments, senior politicians, senior government, judicial or military officials (colonel rank and above), senior executives of state owned corporations, and important political party officials. The definition also includes any person who is or has been entrusted with a prominent function in an international organization, such as directors, deputy directors and members of the board. This term also includes up to second degree family members and close associates.

Tenth: Applicable Law and Jurisdiction:

Any dispute that may arise in respect, hereof, shall be subject to the Kuwaiti Law and to the jurisdiction of the Kuwaiti Courts, and the Customer, hereby, confirms his submission to the jurisdiction of the Kuwaiti Courts of the Governorate of the Capital of the State of Kuwait.