Central Bank of Bahrain joins Afaq Gulf RTGS system
COMMERCIAL NEWS
Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), along with the Saudi Central Bank (Sama), joined the Arabian Gulf System for Financial Automated Quick Payment Transfer (Afaq) that was set up in December last year.
The move comes as part of CBB's ongoing efforts towards developing the cross-border payment systems in Bahrain and adopting the latest technologies into retail payment systems.
The system is operated by the Gulf Payment Company (GPC) in Riyadh, which was established based on the decisions made by the Supreme Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council to build and operate the GCC Real Time Gross Settlement system (RTGS).
The company is owned and managed by the National Central Banks of the six Gulf countries.
According to CBB, the Afaq system was adopted as part of an initiative aimed at providing a regional payment system that will contribute to the financial integration, stability and economic growth in the region.
Its main objective is to provide banks and customers an additional channel of transferring funds through a faster and more secure mean at a lower transaction cost, simultaneously mitigating various risks.
With the launch of the first phase of the Afaq Service; Cross-Currency service, the CBB being its first direct participant has commenced the process of onboarding all retail banks to the Afaq System, and the first batch of Bahraini Retail Banks were successfully onboarded in April, said the kingdom's central bank.
The first batch include Ahli United Bank, Bahrain Islamic Bank, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, Eskan Bank, and National Bank of Bahrain. The onboarding process of the remaining banks is currently in progress, it added.
