Payward has integrated SGB Net, Singapore Gulf Bank's real-time clearing network, allowing institutional clients in Asia and the Gulf region to settle instantly at any hour. SGB will also onboard Kraken Prime as an additional source of digital asset liquidity.

Payward, the unified financial infrastructure platform behind Kraken, and Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB), a fully licensed digital bank regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, today announced a strategic partnership to bring always-on settlement to institutional digital asset markets available to specific jurisdictions only. 

With this partnership, Payward has integrated SGB Net, SGB's real-time multi-currency clearing network. It allows institutional clients of both firms to now settle transactions instantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The settlement offering initially starts with US dollar transactions for a select number of clients, with plans to expand to more clients and additional currencies over time.

Settlement between banks and trading venues have historically taken days and been held to fixed cut-off times, even as digital asset markets trade around the clock. Through SGB Net, an SGB client can deposit funds with Payward and put them to work instantly, at any hour. SGB is also partnering with Kraken Prime, Payward's full-service prime brokerage solution, to access liquidity for its digital asset offerings. Over the coming months, it will draw on Payward's markets to price trades for its own customers.

SGB launched SGB Net in 2025 for digital asset businesses with growing operational needs, and the network has since scaled to process more than $20 billion in fiat transactions each month. SGB is backed by Mumtalakat, Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, and by Singapore's Whampoa Group, and it onboards corporate clients digitally across markets.

"Exchanges, payment providers, OTC desks and fintechs all run into the same banking constraint. Settlement stops when the business day does, while their markets do not. SGB has built settlement infrastructure that reflects the future of digital asset banking and payments," said Mark Greenberg, Chief Commercial Officer of Payward. "Every regulated bank we connect with this way brings us closer to a world where settlement and cross-border payments happen in real time, wherever our clients are."

"Access to liquidity is only useful if clients can move funds when they need to," said Shawn Chan, Chief Executive Officer, SGB. "By connecting SGB Net with Payward and partnering with Kraken Prime, we are bringing settlement and liquidity closer together, giving clients more flexibility in how they fund and manage their digital asset activity."

To support clients across borders and asset classes, SGB offers corporate and personal banking accounts to businesses and individuals worldwide, combining multi-currency accounts, international payments and remote account opening with access to digital asset services.

The partnership is part of enhancing Payward Banking, the money layer behind the Payward platform, which modernizes how clients move cash across deposits, payments, cards, custody, and lending. As digital asset markets and traditional banking offerings converge, clients expect their cash to move as quickly as the assets they trade. Working with leading regulated banks lets Payward bring that speed to new markets, and Payward will keep adding banking partners to offer a broader suite of banking services to clients worldwide.