Manama, Bahrain — Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat), the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with BENEFIT, the company behind Bahrain's electronic fund transfer network, to look for investment and growth opportunities in payments and financial technology at home and abroad.
The two sides announced the agreement on the sidelines of Gateway Gulf 2026, the investment forum held in Manama. Mumtalakat said the work will span e-wallets, unified payment platforms, technology solutions and platforms for businesses, smart data services and wider fintech innovation, and that the pair will also develop new initiatives to pursue opportunities in Bahrain and overseas.
Mumtalakat called BENEFIT the top fintech and electronic transactions firm in Bahrain. Under the agreement, the pair will weigh which opportunities could generate lasting value over the long term and help develop the financial services sector in Bahrain and beyond.
The cooperation also covers building, testing and scaling new fintech solutions. Outside Bahrain, the partners intend to consider selected investment opportunities in international markets, using whatever investment structures, strategic partnerships and alliances they judge appropriate.
No project or investment has been committed yet. The first step is to assess the proposed opportunities and initiatives, checking their commercial and investment feasibility to identify viable projects and decide how they would be carried out. Any project is subject to regulatory requirements and the relevant approvals, and the announcement gives no investment amount or timeline.
Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, CEO of Mumtalakat, said: “Fintech is a promising sector that continues to evolve at a rapid pace. At Mumtalakat, we remain focused on investing in promising sectors by building strategic partnerships that enable us to explore commercially viable investment opportunities with sustainable long-term growth potential.”
He added: “Our partnership with BENEFIT is an extension of this approach, bringing together its specialised knowledge in payments and data with Mumtalakat’s investment expertise. This will enable us to explore new avenues for sustainable value creation and consider innovative initiatives with the potential to grow and scale across local, regional and global markets.”
Abdulwahed AlJanahi, Chief Executive of BENEFIT, added: “We are proud to collaborate with Mumtalakat, drawing on its extensive expertise and proven track record in business growth and development. This partnership brings together Mumtalakat’s capabilities in assessing and developing investment opportunities with BENEFIT’s specialized expertise in market needs, digital payments, and smart data. Together, we aim to deliver innovative digital services that respond to evolving payment technologies and the requirements of individuals and businesses. We look forward to this step contributing to the consolidation of Bahrain’s position as a regional fintech hub, while strengthening the Kingdom’s competitiveness and global presence.”
Mumtalakat said the deal is part of its continuing push to form strategic partnerships that open up investment opportunities, support innovation and sustainable growth, and make Bahrain more competitive in its priority sectors.
BENEFIT was founded in November 1997 by 17 commercial banks as Bahrain's national ATM and point-of-sale switch, according to a World Bank case study published in 2021. At that time it was owned by 14 retail banks and ran the Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS) as an ancillary services provider licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain.
Activity on that system keeps growing. EFTS processed 261.2 million transactions worth approximately $51.33 billion (BHD 19.3 billion) between January and June 2026, BENEFIT reported, up 7.6% in volume and 6.1% in value on the first half of 2025. The BenefitPay app handled roughly 246 million of those transactions, worth approximately $14.36 billion (BHD 5.4 billion).
Most of that volume came from Fawri+, the near-instant transfer service, which recorded 248.1 million transactions across all channels in the half. BENEFIT also said that, during the period, Rain was the first crypto-asset platform licensed in Bahrain to let its users pay through BenefitPay.
Mumtalakat, established in 2006, says it is sector-agnostic and splits its portfolio among international investments, local investments and government holdings. The BENEFIT agreement was one of several it announced at the forum, alongside a technology investment partnership with Brookfield, a tie-up with TRAIL on sports, gaming and esports, a memorandum with Arab Invest, and strategic investments in Tanami and DOO.
Pairing a state investor with the operator of Bahrain's main payment rails could give new payments and data ventures both funding and an existing distribution network. How far the cooperation goes may depend on which ideas clear the feasibility stage and then win regulatory approval.
