On 13 February 2026, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Kuwait and Papua New Guinea under Increased Monitoring (the “Grey List”), following the conclusion of its latest plenary meeting held in Mexico City.
 
 At the end of the summit, FATF urged Kuwait and Papua New Guinea to strengthen supervision of high-risk financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions, improve the effectiveness of suspicious transaction reporting, and enhance the accuracy and availability of beneficial ownership information, among other measures.
 
 FATF President Elisa de Anda Madrazo stated: “I am pleased to have received from both countries a high-level political commitment that they will deliver on clear action plans.”
 
 Kuwait has made a high-level political commitment to work closely with FATF and MENAFATF to further strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT framework. In its public statement, FATF linked Kuwait’s action plan to three key priority areas, which will guide supervisory expectations and enforcement going forward:
- enhancing outreach to real estate agents and Dealers in Precious Metals and Stones on Suspicious Transaction Reporting, including through distribution of sector-based indicators of ML/TF; – ensuring that beneficial ownership information in the registry is accurate, and applying effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions in cases of inaccurate information where appropriate; and – increasing ML investigations and prosecutions in relation to cross-border movements of currency and BNIs.

As a result of this measure, all businesses subject to enhanced AML compliance rules, including companies selling jewellery and watches, should review their procedures and prepare for a stricter level of scrutiny by the authorities.