Bahraini banks and Benefit have executed instant payments using DCBM between their clients on Google Cloud’s Universal Ledger, in a collaboration facilitated by Bahrain Fintech Bay.
The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), Bahrain Islamic Bank (BISB), Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), and Benefit joined forces to pilot the new Google Cloud infrastructure for payments using digital commercial bank money (DCBM). This initiative strengthens Bahrain’s position in the payment development industry and advances its vision to become a global fintech hub.
More about the pilot
The pilot had high-value transactions in BHD between enterprises, such as Alba and Bapco Energies, executed and settled instantly in a controlled test environment. This demonstrated the platform’s ability to reduce costs and lower transaction overhead, improve security by making the digital payments programmable and transparent, and operate 24/7 by eliminating traditional settlement delays and operating hour restrictions.
The initiative provides a blueprint for optimising the efficiency of high-volume domestic and cross-border transactions, a significant objective in Bahrain’s goal to build a world-class financial ecosystem. Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL) is the tech at the core of the project, a distributed ledger built for financial services that brings the efficiency of 24/7, real-time transactions to traditional money and assets. GCUL simplifies account management, optimises global transfers, and integrates into pre-existing workflows, without reducing participating banks’ deposits or lending. This supports institutions to create and launch new services on Google Cloud’s secure infrastructure.
The next phase of the initiative will focus on expanding participation to more financial institutions and industry players, enabling cross-border, multi-currency transactions at scale and developing POS integrations and moving from controlled testing to live operations across the region. If everything goes according to plan, a full market rollout will follow. As banks adopt new developments and technologies to improve services, initiatives like this one help unlock significant benefits and opportunities, spanning payments, transparency, and compliance. Customers gain 24/7 availability, near-instant settlements, and lower transaction fees, while institutional clients benefit from better treasury management, complete visibility of the payment lifecycle, improved compliance and auditing, tokenisation opportunities, and optimised interoperability.
