Kuwait’s National Assembly has approved a bankruptcy law which will help troubled companies, give them legal protections and provide them with various options before they declare bankruptcy. It specifies two main ways out of trouble for a defaulting company or merchant. The first is a preventive settlement with the agreement of the creditor and debtor. The second is the creation of a plan for restructuring before declaring bankruptcy and even where bankruptcy is declared, only the corrupt bankrupt will be punished. Under the existing law, which is 40 years old, stopping the payment of debt means declaring bankruptcy, which leads to the bankrupt party being jailed, having a travel ban imposed on them and being stripped of their political rights.