Kuwait’s financial sector is reeling from a dispute between the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and the Kuwait Banking Association (KBA). KBA announced on 10 June that banks had been told not to pay any cash dividends to shareholders this year, to preserve liquidity. The announcement was made during trading hours on the Boursa Kuwait and caused a sharp fall. The next day the CMA announced it had cancelled the previous day’s trading, an unprecedented move which wiped out the share price falls but had serious ramifications.
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