Bank ABC goes live with instant blockchain payments for institutions with J.P. Morgan’s Coin Systems in partnership with the CBB

Bank ABC becomes the first Middle East bank to introduce faster cross-border payments to specific corridors for corporates and financial institutions utilizing J.P. Morgan’s Coin Systems. Coin Systems is a blockchain-based permissioned system that serves as a payment rail and deposit account ledger and sits within Onyx by J.P. Morgan.

The soft launch of the new payment service by Bank ABC follows close collaboration with the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). The CBB provided support across various aspects of the initiative including integrating and scaling the innovative blockchain-based solution within the Kingdom of Bahrain’s payments landscape.

On this occasion, His Excellency the Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, Mr. Rasheed AlMaraj, said: “After working closely with JP Morgan and Bank ABC over the past two years to experiment the execution of cross-border commercial transactions between Bahrain and the U.S., leveraging the J.P. Morgan Coin System, we are pleased to witness the soft launch of this innovative banking solution by a Bahraini-based bank.  This initiative aligns with the CBB’s strategic vision to embrace innovation and digitalize the Kingdom’s financial services sector by eliminating inefficiencies that exist in traditional cross-border payment railways, facilitating trade between Bahrain and the U.S., and thereby inducing economic activity. We commend Bank ABC on their commitment to enhance their banking offerings by leveraging advanced global technologies.”

Mr. Sael Al Waary, Bank ABC Group CEO, said: “As a Middle East based bank operating in five continents, we’re always searching for the best global banking innovations to bring back to our regional home. Offering high value cross-border payments via the J.P. Morgan Coin Systems service means we can cut traditional settlement periods considerably – and offer new cost benefits for clients. We remain committed to serving as a key enabler of Bahrain’s vision for a digital economy and driving further digital transformation within the regional financial services landscape. We would like to thank our partners the Central Bank of Bahrain for their commitment and leadership and J.P. Morgan for their leading role in advancing cross-border payments for banking services.

Naveen Mallela, Global Head of Onyx Coin Systems, said “Bank ABC has been one of the earliest adopters of the JPM Coin offering and we are delighted to launch the first of its kind commercial payment offering between J.P. Morgan and Bank ABC using distributed ledger rails. This enables cross-border commercial transactions to be executed between Bahrain and US corridors instantly, atomically and with certainty.”

J.P. Morgan’s Coin Systems team seeks to help address the complex challenges of cross border payments, simplify clients' liquidity funding needs, and offer next generation corporate treasury services. While the offering has been launched with USD and locations involving Bahrain, US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, additional locations and currencies, notably Euro, are in the pipeline. Going forward with the planned introduction of programmable payment offerings, it will enable mutual corporate clients to leverage event driven and automated payouts enabling a dynamic and real time treasury management.

The launch of this service is part of Bank ABC’s comprehensive digital transformation programme, which serves to futureproof and diversify the Bank’s proposition with the best available banking innovations.

Bank ABC recently won the ‘Top Innovations in Finance’ award at the renowned Global Finance Innovators 2023 Awards for playing a leading role in the Gulf region’s first blockchain-based cross-border instant payment solution.