EFTS · Fawri+The instant (near-real-time) component of Bahrain’s electronic funds transfer system, and the kingdom’s leading retail rail by volume.BENEFIT Company (supervised by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB)) · since 2015Value grew from BHD 8.6 billion to BHD 9.7 billion in 2025, up 13.6% (BENEFIT, 2026 release). Derived volume: about 468 million transactions (494.0 million EFTS transactions minus Fawri and Fawateer).
Global registry · Africa & Middle East · West Asia
Bahrain Payment systems
6 systems listed.
This country doesn’t have a written market analysis yet: e-commerce shares, regulator, and key players are still to be documented. The systems below, however, are verified.
IBAN · Bahrain
22 characters167 BIC codes
- Total length
- 22 characters
- Bank code position
- 5–8
- BBAN structure
4!a14!c
Structurally valid example
BHcountry code67check digitsBMAGbank00001299123456account
BH67 BMAG 0000 1299 1234 56
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Payments in East AfricaPayments in Portuguese-speaking and southern AfricaMobile money in AfricaPayments in West and Southern AfricaPayments in the CEMAC zonePayments in the Gulf and the Middle EastAccepting payments in AfricaAccepting payments in Egypt and the MaghrebAccepting payments in the GulfCollecting payments in Kenya and East AfricaCollecting payments in Nigeria and West AfricaPayments in Africa: the continent that reinvented mobile money
Instant payments
Fawri+One of the Gulf’s first instant rails, complemented by Fawri (same business day), Fawateer (bill payments), and the BenefitPay wallet: an architecture of branded services that Bahrain has exported, as a concept, across the region.BENEFIT Company (under the auspices of the Central Bank of Bahrain) · since 2015
Clearing and settlement
EFTS · FawateerBahrain’s national bill payment platform. Its decline in 2025 shows how direct instant payments are cannibalizing EBPP.BENEFIT Company / CBB · since 201511.8 million transactions in 2025, down from 12.6 million in 2024 (BENEFIT, 2026 press release).
Wallets
BenefitPayA national multibank wallet run by the banking consortium. It is a rare case where the shared industry app, rather than the banks’ own apps, captures the vast majority of volume.BENEFIT Company · since 2017466.0 million transactions worth BHD 10.2 billion in 2025 (+10.6% by volume, +9.5% by value), or 94% of total EFTS volume of 494.0 million transactions and BHD 37.5 billion (BENEFIT, 2026 press release).
Acquiring and processing
BENEFIT (national switch)The sole operator of Bahrain’s ATM/POS switch, EFTS, credit bureau, and eKYC service: an unavoidable gateway for any PSP entering Bahrain.BENEFIT Company (a consortium of Bahraini banks, licensed by the CBB (Central Bank of Bahrain)) · since 1997See EFTS: 494.0 million transactions / BHD 37.5 billion in 2025.
Other
RTGS (Central Bank of Bahrain)Bahrain's core settlement system, phased in from June 2007 and fully live on August 9, 2007, alongside the scripless securities settlement system (SSS). It cut the time to receive funds from two to four days down to instant. The entire BENEFIT stack (EFTS, Fawri, Fawri+, Fawateer, and BenefitPay) settles in it in central bank money.Central Bank of Bahrain · since 2007