Kuwait’s Wamdh Payments Jump 44.34 Percent as Banks’ Net Foreign Assets Climb 17.13 Percent

By The Edge Research Team

Transactions across Kuwait’s four electronic payment channels came to 42,335.7 million dinars in the first nine months of 2026, on our calculation from the Central Bank of Kuwait’s monthly tables. The four are bank cards at points of sale, at cash machines and on online payment gateways, plus the Wamdh instant payment service. Their total was 4.75 percent more than the 40,415.1 million dinars of January to September 2025, on our calculation. Wamdh set the pace. Its value rose 44.34 percent to 8,751.6 million dinars, on our calculation. Local banks also lifted their net foreign assets 17.13 percent on the year to 17,286.8 million dinars at the end of September, on our calculation.

Wamdh Passes Its Whole 2025 Total in Nine Months

Nine months into the year, Wamdh has already moved more money than in the whole of 2025, on our calculation. Its 8,751.6 million dinars compare with 8,737.5 million dinars for the twelve months of 2025, on our calculation. The service handled 135.4 million transfers from January to September, on our calculation. That is 68.88 percent more than a year earlier, on our calculation.

Transfers grew faster in number than in value, on our calculation. The average Wamdh payment was 64.62 dinars in the nine months, against 75.60 dinars in the same months of 2025, on our calculation. In September it was 61.89 dinars on our calculation, down from the 71.8 dinars the central bank printed for September 2025. On our reading, people are using the service for smaller payments.

Wamdh’s share of the four channels rose to 20.67 percent from 15.00 percent a year earlier, on our calculation. That puts it ahead of cash machines, whose 6,405.2 million dinars made up 15.13 percent of the total, on our calculation.

Growth was faster inside Kuwait, on our calculation. There, card transactions and Wamdh together carried 39,954.8 million dinars in the nine months, 5.45 percent more than the 37,890.7 million dinars of January to September 2025, on our calculation. Wamdh made up 21.90 percent of that domestic total, on our calculation.

Wamdh and the four-channel total grow in nine months

Million dinars, January to September, transactions inside and outside Kuwait with local and foreign bank cards, plus the Wamdh service. The January to September 2025 values were 14,398.2 for points of sale, 13,118.6 for payment gateways, 6,063.3 for Wamdh transfers, 6,835.0 for cash machines and 40,415.1 in total. The 2025 card figures are the sum of three quarterly totals; the other figures are sums of monthly values. Sums and changes on our calculation.

Wamdh Handles 17.02 Million Transfers in September as Valid Cards Rise 10.37 Percent

Wamdh handled 17.02 million transfers in September, the highest monthly count in the 21 months from January 2025 to September 2026, on our count. That is 46.95 percent more than in September 2025 and 3.69 percent more than in August, on our calculation. The value of the month’s transfers, 1,053.6 million dinars, was 26.63 percent above September 2025, on our calculation. Across the four channels, September carried 4,731.7 million dinars, 2.94 percent more than in September 2025, on our calculation.

Valid bank cards reached 8,141.2 thousand at the end of September. That is 10.37 percent more than a year earlier, on our calculation. Debit cards rose 11.68 percent to 6,302.9 thousand and made up 77.42 percent of the cards in issue, on our calculation. Credit cards rose 6.09 percent to 1,838.3 thousand, on our calculation.

The three card channels carried 33,584.1 million dinars in the nine months, 2.23 percent less than a year earlier, on our calculation. Card transactions abroad came to 2,381.0 million dinars, down 5.68 percent, and inside Kuwait the card channels were 1.96 percent lower, on our calculation. Counting Wamdh, the four-channel total was still 4.75 percent higher, on our calculation.

Banks’ Net Foreign Assets and Credit Agreements Post Their Strongest Septembers in the Central Bank’s Tables

Local banks’ foreign assets rose 8.59 percent in a year to 34,687.5 million dinars, on our calculation. Their foreign liabilities grew 1.26 percent to 17,400.7 million dinars, on our calculation. That left banks with 1.99 dinars of foreign assets for every dinar owed abroad, on our calculation, and a net position 2,527.6 million dinars larger than in September 2025.

The gain built through the year. Net foreign assets rose in each of the four months from June to September, on our count, and stood 2,379.9 million dinars, or 15.97 percent, above the end of 2025, on our calculation. September alone added 293.3 million dinars, a rise of 1.73 percent on August, on our calculation.

Local banks’ net foreign assets rise in each September of the table

Million dinars, local banks at the end of September. Net is foreign assets less foreign liabilities. Rise in each year on our count.

Banks also concluded 3,596.7 million dinars of dinar credit agreements in September, the strongest September in the central bank’s table, on our count. The series counts new facilities, rescheduled facilities and increases in existing limits. September’s agreements were 61.64 percent above August’s 2,225.1 million dinars, on our calculation. They were 1.46 percent above September 2025 and 7.77 percent above September 2024, on our calculation.

Real estate led with 902.1 million dinars, or 25.08 percent of the month’s total, on our calculation. Personal facilities came next at 666.1 million dinars, up 34.73 percent on September 2025, on our calculation. Within them, consumer agreements rose 18.30 percent and other personal agreements 43.55 percent, on our calculation. Securities agreements reached 526.7 million dinars. Together, the three made up 58.25 percent of September’s agreements, on our calculation.

Real estate and personal facilities lead September credit agreements

Million dinars, dinar credit agreements by local banks with residents and non-residents, covering new, rescheduled and increased facilities. Other sectors are constructions, other services, non-bank financial institutions, agriculture, industry and public services, summed on our calculation. The lines sum to 3,544.9 and 3,596.8 because of rounding, on our calculation.

Public Debt Instruments Reach 3,900.0 Million Dinars

Outstanding public debt instruments stood at 3,900.0 million dinars at the end of September. That is 2.44 times the 1,600.0 million dinars of a year earlier, on our calculation, and 73.33 percent above the end of 2025, on our calculation. The whole balance sits with local banks, the table shows.

The state issued 2,150.0 million dinars from February to September, on our calculation from the central bank’s public debt schedule. The total came in 15 issues, on our count. In June, 500.0 million dinars matured. Bids on them came to 7,173.7 million dinars, 3.34 times the amount sold, on our calculation and our reading of the schedule’s bid column.

Banks financed 359.6 million dinars of Kuwaiti imports in September, 26.40 percent more than in August, on our calculation. Documentary letters of credit rose 57.47 percent on the month to 226.6 million dinars and made up 63.01 percent of the total, on our calculation. Against September 2025, import financing was 56.85 percent lower, on our calculation, as other payment orders fell to 110.9 million dinars from 574.7 million dinars.

Kuwait’s official reserve assets stood at 9,644.9 million dinars at the end of September. That was 4.33 percent below August and 25.76 percent below September 2025, on our calculation. Special drawing rights rose 2.38 percent on the year to 1,361.5 million dinars, on our calculation. The central bank notes that the reserve figures exclude the external assets of the Kuwait Investment Authority.

Why it matters: Wamdh started in June 2024. In the first nine months of 2026 it carried 20.67 percent of the value of transactions across Kuwait’s four electronic payment channels, on our calculation. Kuwait’s banks are building their external position too. Their net foreign assets of 17,286.8 million dinars are 17.13 percent higher than a year ago, on our calculation, and above every September in the central bank’s table, on our count. Credit agreements are strongest in real estate and personal facilities.

Outlook: The October tables will show whether Wamdh keeps up September’s 17.02 million transfers, whether banks extend their run of monthly gains in net foreign assets, now four months long on our count, and whether credit agreements match September’s strength. The central bank’s public debt schedule, updated on 26 October, lists the 23 September seven-year issue as the latest, so the next issue would be the first of the calendar fourth quarter.

Sources: Central Bank of Kuwait, The Edge.

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