BENEFIT, a leading innovator in Bahrain and a major player in the fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has announced that it had processed 261.2 million transactions through the Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS) in the first half of 2026, up 7.6% from a year earlier.

The total value of these transactions surged by 6.1% to hit BD19.3 billion ($51.2 billion). The transactions, which were processed through bank channels and the BenefitPay application, included only successfully completed transactions.

The transaction volume increased from 242.7 million in the first half while transaction value rose from BD18.2 billion, reflecting continued growth in digital payments and transfers, said Bahrain's top electronic payments network in its statement.

BenefitPay accounted for about 246 million EFTS transactions worth BD5.4 billion, up 7.2% in both volume and value from the same period a year earlier, when it processed 229.4 million transactions worth BD5.1 billion.

Fawri+, Bahrain's instant electronic fund transfer service, processed 248.1 million transactions across all channels worth BD5.4 billion, an 8% increase in volume and a 17.7% rise in value from the first half of 2025.

Fawri+ transactions conducted through BenefitPay rose 7.6% to about 241 million, while their value increased 13.1% to BD4.8 billion.

BENEFIT said Fawri processed 7.3 million transactions worth BD13.2 billion across all channels, compared with 7.1 million transactions worth BD13 billion a year earlier. Transaction volume rose 3.5%, while value increased 1.8%.

Fawri transactions through BenefitPay fell 56% to about 145,800, while their value declined 34.2% to BD400.5 million, compared with 331,100 transactions worth BD608.6 million in the first half of 2025.

Fawateer, a bill payment service, processed 5.7 million transactions across all channels, down 4% from 5.9 million a year earlier. Their total value, however, rose 11.4% to BD672.4 million from BD603.4 million.

Through BenefitPay, Fawateer processed about 4.9 million transactions worth BD262.6 million compared with 5.1 million transactions worth BD243 million in the first half of 2025. Volume fell 4.8%, while value increased 8.1%.

The Bahrain Credit Reference Bureau, operated by BENEFIT, issued 11,100 consumer and corporate credit reports in the first half of 2026, up 0.2% from 11,000 a year earlier. Credit enquiries rose 1.3% to about 249,100 from 245,900.

During the period, BENEFIT launched a digital Direct Debit service through Fawateer on BenefitPay, including a monthly bill-payment service in cooperation with Bahrain's Electricity and Water Authority.

The company also introduced scheduled transfers on BenefitPay and added personal QR codes to the application's home screen.

Rain, a licensed crypto-asset platform in Bahrain, became the first such platform in the country to enable payments through BenefitPay, stated Bahrain's top e-payments network.

BENEFIT also continued its training and leadership programmes during the first half, including the graduation of the second cohort of its Fintech Drivers Programme and the launch of the third cohort of its Ruwaad Leadership Programme. It also launched the fifth edition of its Masar fintech training programme, it added.-TradeArabia News Service