Bahrain Successfully Pilots New Google Cloud Infrastructure for Payments

In a landmark collaboration facilitated by Bahrain FinTech Bay, the National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), Bahrain Islamic Bank (BISB), Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), and Benefit executed instant payments using digital commercial bank money between their clients on Google Cloud Universal Ledger. Supported by the Economic Development Board, this initiative strengthens Bahrain’s position as a regional leader in payment innovation, a cornerstone of its vision to become a global fintech hub.

High-value transactions in Bahraini Dinar between major enterprises such as Alba and Bapco Energies were executed and settled instantly and securely in a controlled test environment, proving the platform’s potential to: 

• Reduce Costs: Lower transaction and operational overhead.

• Enhance Security: Provide programmable, transparent, and secure digital payments.

• Operate 24/7: Eliminate traditional settlement delays and operating hour restrictions.

This achievement solidifies Bahrain’s position as a regional leader in financial innovation. It provides a clear blueprint for enhancing the efficiency of both high-volume domestic and cross-border transactions, a key objective in the Kingdom’s strategy to build a world-class financial ecosystem.

The technology at the core, Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), is a high-throughput distributed ledger built for financial services that brings the efficiency of 24/7, real-time transactions to traditional money and assets. GCUL is designed specifically for financial services to simplify account management, streamline global transfers, and integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, without reducing participating banks’ deposits or lending. GCUL empowers institutions to build and launch innovative new client services on Google Cloud’s secure and scalable infrastructure.

Bahrain is ready to scale the initiative to additional banks in the Kingdom, creating a fully interoperable regional payment ecosystem. The next phase will focus on expanding participation to more financial institutions and players. It will also enable cross-border, multi-currency transactions at scale, developing point-of-sale integrations for consumers. As banks embrace innovation to enhance services for both customers and institutional clients, initiatives like Google Cloud Universal Ledger help unlock transformative benefits, spanning payments, transparency, compliance, and trust. Customers gain 24/7 availability, near-instant settlements, and significantly lower transaction fees, while institutional clients benefit from streamlined treasury management, end-to-end visibility of the payment lifecycle, improved compliance and auditing, tokenization opportunities, and enhanced interoperability.

This successful pilot is just the beginning. The clear road map ahead involves scaling the platform by onboarding more financial institutions and corporate clients, moving from controlled testing to live operations across the region, and ultimately launching a full market rollout. 

Bahrain maintains its position as the ideal place for testing the latest fintech solutions, reinforcing its standing as a frontrunner in financial innovation worldwide, further highlighting the Kingdom’s commitment to Vision 2030. Central to this achievement is Bahrain Fintech Bay, which coordinated the pilot and played a pivotal role in connecting Google Cloud with local banks, regulators, and stakeholders, thus driving innovation and foreign direct investment into the Kingdom. 

Pilot Overview

• Participants: Benefit, NBB, BISB, BBK, (Alba, Bapco Energies) 

• Coordinator: Bahrain Fintech Bay

• Technology Partner: Google Cloud