The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the emirate's largest bank, said Sunday that it was considering the purchase of 70 percent of Iraq Credit Bank to commence operations in the war-ravaged country.
NBK, Britain's HSBC and Standard Chartered were in January awarded the first licences given to foreign banks in Iraq for 40 years.
"The licence gives NBK all the choices regarding its presence in Iraq, of opening a branch, sharing in an Iraqi bank or buying an Iraqi bank," NBK said in a statement.
"For the time being, NBK is studying these options ... NBK would like to state that buying 70 percent of Iraq Credit Bank is one of the options that it is studying now, and that nothing has been decided regarding this issue," it added.
In November, NBK became the first Kuwaiti bank since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of the emirate to start money transfer services to Iraq in both US dollars and Iraqi dinars.
Founded by Kuwait's leading merchant families in 1952 as the Gulf state's first commercial bank, NBK has one of the largest international networks among Arab banks.
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