Based in Riyadh, KSA, the Gulf Monetary Council (GMCO) was founded in March 2010 as a regional economic organization. GMCO's membership is open to countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) only. The current membership of GMCO includes the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the State of Qatar, and the State of Kuwait.
GMCO was founded in the wake of the ratification of the Monetary Union Agreement (MUA) and GMCO's Statute by the GCC Ministerial Council in June 2009. Subsequently, the Member States completed the ratification and deposit procedures for the monetary union agreement and statute document in February 2010. Article (20) stipulated that the Statute shall enter into force one month from the date of depositing the fourth instrument of ratification. Accordingly, GMCO Statute became effective on 27 March 2010, which was also considered the date of the GMCO foundation.