Bahrainis benefit hugely from digital transactions

Bahrainis are increasingly benefiting from the virtues of cashless payments, which according to BENEFIT produced an annual increase exceeding 99 per cent jump in its Fawri+ transactions during 2018. Fawri, Fawri+ and Fawateer payment services, according to BENEFIT, all achieved new highs in direct electronic funds transfer transactions within Bahrain in 2018 as compared to 2017. Total transactions completed through Fawri+ last year reached 959,689, compared to 372,385 in 2017, or an increase of 158pc, while total fund transfers amounted to approximately BD 175m.

The favourable indicators achieved by the Company in 2018, BENEFIT’s Chief Executive Officer Abdulwahid AlJanahi said, consolidate the electronic financial transactions culture in the Bahraini society, and emphasize the great importance of enhancing electronic banking services. “2018 saw a 4 per cent decline in the number of cheques in circulation to around 3.2m from 3.3m in 2017,” AlJanahi added. As for Fawri, the total transaction volumes reached to 5.8m in 2018 compared to 4.9m in 2017 equivalent to an increase of 19pc with a value of BD 11.2 billion in 2018 compared to 9.7 billion in 2017.

Moreover, the total number of transactions completed through the Fawateer service last year exceeded 1.6m, compared to 1.2m in 2017, or 34pc increase where the total value of the transitions exceeded 133m in 2018. The use of bank cards between GCC member states to pay for purchases saw a boom in 2018, with total completed transactions exceeding 1.1m in 2018, compared to 430 thousand in 2017, or an increase of 146pc.

On the other hand, the use of ATM cards for local payment transactions increased by 16pc in 2018 to over 23m payment transactions, compared to 19m in 2017. “Domestic direct fund transfer transaction services have shown the critical need for concentrating on electronic transactions based on usage indicators in 2018 compared to 2017,” AlJanahi said.