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Doha Bank, Qatar's fourth largest lender by market value, said on Sunday it planned to open its first branch in Kuwait, the Middle East's fourth-largest oil exporter.
Doha Bank won approval from the government of Kuwait to open the branch, the Qatari lender said in a statement on the Doha bourse Web site.
France's BNP Paribas was the first foreign bank after about three decades of nationalisation to get a licence to operate in Kuwait in 2004.
Other foreign banks, such as HSBC, Citigroup Inc and National Bank of Abu Dhabi, have followed, but they are restricted to one branch.
Kuwait's central bank governor Sheikh Salem Abdul Aziz Al Sabah told An Nahar newspaper in November he hopes the banking law will be revised to allow foreign banks to open more than one branch. (Reuters)
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