Draft - "Behind the curtains" tour in Kuwaiti banks!

This is the fourth bank I'm working for during my 6 year experience in IT. Time wasn't equally spent in All banks, but I have been around and dealt with all banks and I can say that I have seen enough! During my last 2 jobs transition, I was aiming to leave Financial sector and go for telecom, and at the final step, I would turn down the telecom offer and go for another bank, I guess it's my destiny to be an engineer-banker





anyhow, here's my quick Bank-Guide for our local banks. (by order of appearance in my professional life :p )







Gulf Bank : I haven't spent enough time to comment, but I always thought there's something fishy about Gulf Bank, and I guess I wasn't wrong (hint , recent news)
one Colleague once described working there are as سوق الجمعة (Friday Market). well it could be, coz things go differently every time! They have a very high turnover rate , staff quitting everyday, however, that made their HR team really good! they are the only ones who make exit interviews , and I think Commercial bank recently adopted this..





Commercial Bank : They have gotten somewhere during the last 5 years (of course with my help ;p) . but seriously, they have established real good products, better reputation, and stronger existance in the kuwaiti market..but they're still growing, and in need of "better quality" and reliability.. sometimes they have this great product , but only if it works 24/7! It's a great place to learn if you're a fresh graduate, you will love it..





National Bank : or better off "the bubble الفقاعة" where it's really shiny from the outside, but inside there's nothing!! hawa .. all these Ads best bank and so on.. but inside its just another bank with a worse mess maybe..

it's a very very mature banks and closer to becoming a wezara .. you'll find people who have been there for at least 20 years and still holding on to the same position(hint hint .. certain nationality), and to get something done you need to talk to 1500 ppl , all of them will tell you it's this guy ! no it's this guy! when really no one knows! they're very very organized .. they love paperwork, signatures, and bluffing of course is a needed skill to be hired.

Only go there if you want to slack without being noticed, and maybe spend time in starbucks all day, as the best knowledge you'll gain is knowing all type of starbucks products. Their customer service is going down the drain because of the newly adopted WEZARA style service.. It is hard to keep up the "best bank" reputation and they gotta do something about it.


Being too big is not necessarly good, I think it's time for a Spin-Off.. I don't know how that is possible in a bank situation, but I'm sure a business structure expert will find out

Boubyan Bank : I'd rather call it the baby bank :) and it IS a young baby compared to all the sheyyab in the market.. being a baby means a smaller environment, less exposure, limited resources, and lots of experience because everything is startup, kinda. An advantage of being in Boubyan is that all staff here are a collection of other banks experience, so each comes with a mindset, and when cooked together I think you'll get the best part of each bank coming into one big best thing.

Did you notice they just rebranded the logo 2 months back?! It wasn't me I swear

next items are based on my interaction experience as a "banker" and a "customer" , not my work expeirence:

BKME : a very promising bank in terms of "customer service".. I guess part of it because it's small and things can get done by talking to 1 person and not 100.. Their service actually is miraculous when it comes to online banking issues. Their recent "Branding" made a huge difference, and their products are very good.. Working there would be a nice experience , yet lots of work because it's not as organized as other Banks, but they have a friendly environment I can tell..

KFH : or as my dad calls it , the OCTOPUS. I'd rather call it "No woman's land" . It wasn't classified as a bank until recently, but it has the best rates for many products. it was the bank when you want to do islamic banking, probably still is , although KIB and Boubyan are kicking in, but it's gonna lose some of its customer base soon if they dont do anything about their business model , I think they make money out of "fees" more than anything else.. that's easy to do when they were "monopolizing" the market, being the only islamic, they can charge whatever .. and the poor kuwaitis wanna live with حطها براس عالم و اطلع سالم .. and pay the fees hoping all their money is handled in a 7ALAL way just like the meat they eat. when KFH is really abusing those customers by charging higher interest rates, fees on stepping into the branch! (kidding) .


Working there, if you're a lady you only have the branches or card center, that's it! as if women can not do anything else? or no no wait, they can not MIX the aliens from Mars & Venus!

Burgan Bank : I'd rather call it "على البركة" as all other kipco companies.. they're all "go witht he flow".. a total mess from inside, but nice shiny advertisments.. but the mis-organization inside is really messing up their customer service.. Can you believe a customer lead coming in for saving account and credit card, and being ignored twice? so much for their sales team! oh no, and one of their sales team actually had the guts to say "I don't really know much about Credit Cards, I'll check and let you know" , and I assure you will never get a call back..

Working there... ? well as I said it's a bit messy and things tend to get lost because they have a high turnover rate.. I think Burgan was a leader in Banking technology back in the times, but too bad it lost it .. it takes alot of effort to maintain a technology product and keep it up-to-date

Their latest re-branding was a very nice look, but the launch of it was so smooth , hardly noticed

Ahli Bank : I had no interaction professionally or as a customer .. maybe soon I'll have a review , or please comment if you can!

KIB : Kuwait International Bank, previously known as Kuwait Real Estate Bank : Since it became a retail banker, I haven't dealt with it. But I really like that they did not really "restart" , even with the logo , it was just a touchup.. it's a good idea because people here tend to believe old stuff are established and better, new companies are not very good.. I believe in the opposite, it's always better to go with "new" stuff because they want to gain customers by providing better services.. except in the case of VIVA , they have services but no customer service exists

Fellow bankers and ex-bankers, please comment and share your experiences!

I just noticed that I didn't write a single blog in 2008 .. well I guess I had nothing to say! :)