Electronic Fund Transfer System on the rise

The Central Bank of Bahrain records transactions worth BD37.9 million in the first half of 2017

Bahrain’s Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS), introduced launched November 5, 2015, has shown remarkable results in the form of an efficient and fast system that accommodates customer fund transfers within local banks through different electronic devices, such as smartphones, computers or tablets. This system has been initiated by the Central Bank of Bahrain in collaboration with the BENEFIT Company.

The EFTS allows retail bank customers to instantly transfer funds, throughout the day, from their bank accounts to recipient accounts in any other bank in just 30 seconds, through Fawri+, up to a maximum total amount of 1,000 Bahraini Dinars (BD) per day. There is also the Fawri service that allows fund transfers to a single or multiple recipients, such as payment of salaries, within the same bank business day or future date. This is in addition to the introduction of Fawateer service, which allows customers to pay their bills through an efficient and fast system. This service aggregates all the outstanding bills from different billers in order for the customer to pay these bills in one transaction within 30 seconds.

The system witnessed a remarkable growth in usage, where the number of Fawri+ transactions amounted to approximately 153 thousand, worth about BD37.9 million during the first half of 2017, a growth of 211 per cent when compared to the value of transactions during the first half of 2016. While the number of Fawri transactions were 2.4 million, worth about BD4.6 billion during the first half of 2017, which was a growth of 44 per cent compared to the value of transactions during the same period of 2016. As for Fawateer, the number of transactions were around 553.2 thousand, worth about BD29.7 million during the first half of 2017, a growth of 458 per cent compared to the value of transactions during the same period of 2016.

“The central bank’s policy is to continuously develop all banking transactions by introducing the latest technologies in the field of payment and settlement systems, in order to significantly benefit the local economy. The central bank continues to introduce policies and regulations to introduce more of these advanced services in the coming period,” said Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, Executive Director of Banking Operations at the Central Bank of Bahrain.