BENEFIT, Bahrain’s national digital infrastructure provider, and Singapore-based MonetaGo have begun implementing the Kingdom’s first Trade Finance Registry (TFR), in partnership with Bahrain FinTech Bay. The system will create a unified digital ledger for financed trade transactions and invoices, helping generate alternative credit data, strengthen fraud prevention, and expand SME access to financing. The initiative marks a key step in Bahrain’s broader push to scale digital public infrastructure.
The TFR aims to improve transparency across the financial system by reducing banks’ exposure to duplicate financing and other fraud risks, while supporting the expansion of commercial lending to SMEs—who currently face limited access to credit despite accounting for the majority of businesses in the Kingdom. The collaboration leverages Bahrain’s fintech ecosystem and Singapore’s established digital trust frameworks, positioning both countries to build interoperable cross-border digital infrastructure connecting Asia and the Middle East.
BENEFIT and MonetaGo are also developing a digital trade bridge and shared risk-mitigation framework intended to support secure, region-wide financial connectivity. The initiative builds on Singapore’s TFR, deployed in 2023 by the Association of Banks in Singapore using MonetaGo’s Secure Financing technology, which has since onboarded more than 50 banks.