Payward, the infrastructure company behind the Kraken exchange, and Singapore Gulf Bank announced a partnership on 4 October 2026 that connects Payward to SGB Net, the bank’s real-time clearing network, so institutional clients in Asia and the Gulf can settle transactions at any hour. The Payward Singapore Gulf Bank release says the service starts with US dollar settlement for a select number of clients.

What the Payward Singapore Gulf Bank arrangement covers

Two connections are announced. First, Payward has integrated SGB Net, a multi-currency clearing network that Singapore Gulf Bank launched in 2025 for digital asset businesses. Second, the bank will onboard Kraken Prime, Payward’s prime brokerage service, as an extra source of liquidity, and in the following months it intends to use Payward’s markets to set prices for its own clients’ trades. The bank’s own site, sgb.com, describes it as serving businesses and individuals worldwide.

Bahrain’s central bank licenses and supervises the bank. Its investors include Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, and Singapore’s Whampoa Group. The bank says SGB Net has grown to handle upwards of $20 billion of fiat payments monthly, a figure supplied by the bank and not independently checked. The practical effect for a client is that cash deposited with Payward can be put to work immediately, outside bank cut-off times.

Fintechbits analysis

Why bank settlement is the bottleneck

Digital asset venues trade continuously, but the banks that fund them usually do not settle on weekends or after local cut-off times. Payward Chief Commercial Officer Mark Greenberg described it this way: exchanges, payment providers, over-the-counter desks and fintechs run into the same constraint, because settlement stops when the business day does and their markets do not. Fintechbits agrees that this is a better description of the problem than most stablecoin pitches offer, because it points at the fiat leg rather than the token.

The deal is the second banking link Payward has publicised since early September, when it announced a tie with SoFi, covered in Fintechbits’ report on the SoFi and Payward partnership, and it describes the Singapore Gulf Bank link as part of a wider Payward Banking layer covering deposits, payments, cards, custody and lending. The approach is to collect regulated bank partners one region at a time. Payward’s growth on the trading side, including tokenised equities covered in the LSE and xStocks tokenisation report, makes round-the-clock cash more valuable to it.

Where the announcement stops short

The scope is narrow. The service is available to institutional digital asset markets in specific jurisdictions only, but it does not name them beyond describing Asia and the Gulf region. Settlement begins with US dollars for select clients, so a client wanting euros, dirhams or Singapore dollars has no date to plan around. No client numbers, volumes or fees are given.

The headline claim of instant settlement at any hour is the companies’ own description and has no performance data behind it, such as settlement times, failure rates or limits per transaction. The partnership also leaves open how funds are protected while they sit with Payward overnight, a question that institutional treasury teams will ask before moving real balances. That is analysis from Fintechbits, not a statement from either company.

There is a third gap in how the roles are split. The release says SGB plans to take its pricing for client trades from Payward’s markets, which makes the bank both a settlement partner and a customer of Payward’s liquidity. That creates a useful commercial tie, though it also concentrates dependence on one counterparty, and the release does not mention limits on that exposure.

What to Watch Next

Watch for the first named institutional client and the first statement of monthly volume running through the Payward link, as opposed to the $20 billion that SGB Net handles overall. A second currency announced for the service would be the clearest sign that the arrangement has moved beyond a controlled pilot with a few clients.

Questions and answers

What did Payward and Singapore Gulf Bank announce?

On 4 October 2026 Payward and Singapore Gulf Bank announced a partnership connecting Payward to SGB Net, giving institutional customers across Asia and the Gulf around-the-clock settlement every day of the week. It begins with US dollars for a select number of clients.

How big is SGB Net?

Singapore Gulf Bank says SGB Net, launched in 2025, handles upwards of $20 billion of fiat payments monthly. That is the bank’s own figure.

Who regulates Singapore Gulf Bank?

Bahrain’s central bank licenses and supervises Singapore Gulf Bank. Its shareholders include Mumtalakat, which is Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, and Singapore’s Whampoa Group.