Online banking continues to surge in Bahrain

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MANAMA: Electronic real-time fund transfers jumped seven-fold last month, indicating increasing adoption of digital banking in Bahrain.

The latest infographics released by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) reveal that transactions using Fawri, Fawri+ and Fawateer services, enabled by the Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS), have seen substantial growth in October this year when compared with the same month last year.

Fawri+ is an almost real-time fund transfer service which allows individuals or entities to transfer funds of up to BD1,000 per day in less than 30 seconds; whereas Fawri is a deferred settlement fund transfer service which allows individuals or entities to transfer any amount within a few hours of the business day, and Fawateer provides real-time bill payments.

Last month, Fawri+ accounted for the vast majority, 83pc, of EFTS transactions, followed by Fawri and Fawateer at 11pc and 6pc respectively.

However, in terms of value, Fawri was the leader claiming 78pc, followed by Fawri+ at 19pc and Fawateer at 3pc.

The number of transactions completed through Fawri+ in October 2020 amounted to 5,946,258, up 586.6pc (around 7 times) from 865,989 in October 2019 and 14.86pc higher than 5,176,885 in September 2020.

In terms of value, Fawri+ transactions amounted to BD245.58m in October 2020, up 280.14pc from BD64.6m in October 2019, and 5.4pc higher than BD232.9m in September 2020.

As for Fawri, the number of transactions jumped by 11.46pc to 786,322 in October 2020, when compared with 705,444 in October 2019 and 8.6pc higher than 724,062 in September 2020.

However, the total value of Fawri transactions at BD1,019.86m in October 2020 is down 6.18pc from BD1,086.99m in October 2019 and by 12.02pc from BD1159.16m in September 2020.

The number of transactions made through the Fawateer service in October 2020 were 442,883, higher by 143.02pc than 182,220 in October last year, but 14.67pc lower than 518,939 in September 2020.

In terms of value, Fawateer transactions amounted to BD38.05m in October 2020, 23.82pc lower than BD49.94m in October 2019, and 9.56pc lower than BD42.06m in September 2020.

The CBB data shows also that credit card and debit card transactions across point of sale (POS) terminals saw a drop of 2.2pc in value to BD212.7m in October 2020, when compared with the same month last year.

Providing an insight into how sales and services have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis in Bahrain, the statistics however show that the number of transactions has gone up by 15.4pc to 7,856,767 last month from 6,780,750 in October last year.

avinash@gdn.com.bh

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