Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), Dr. Mohammad Y. Al-Hashel announced on Tuesday that CBK's Board of Directors has approved the principals, rules and regulation for the licensing and operations of foreign banks' branches, and the regulations for opening a foreign banks' representative offices, in the State of Kuwait. Permitting foreign banks to open branches is done all over the world and offers competition in the market place whose beneficiary is the consumer, he told KUNA, noting that such competition leads to cost reduction and increased business which add to Kuwait's keenness on becoming a regional financial and economic power house. The Central Bank of Kuwait, he said, allows the foreign bank to open its branches where it desires and will deal with all the branches as one entity representing the original mother branch.The CBK governor added that foreign banks, opening representative offices, will have these offices under the monitoring eye of the Central Bank.