The Central Bank of Bahrain has officially approved Pay10, which is a big step in its plan to grow in the region.
The Pay10 Bahrain licence lets the fintech company offer payment solutions that are compliant with regulations and work in real time to help the Kingdom reach its digital transformation goals.
With this license, Pay10 will deliver mobile-first interoperable infrastructure designed to integrate with Bahrain’s domestic payment rails, ensuring compliance, speed, and reliability across every transaction and directly contributing to the Kingdom’s broader vision for financial inclusion and diversified economic growth.
Harry Gill, Pay10 Chairman stated: “We are honored to receive this license from the Central Bank of Bahrain and to support the Kingdom’s progressive approach to financial innovation. Our goal is to build real-time, regulator-aligned payment systems that put users, both consumers and merchants, at the center of the digital economy.”
With the Pay10 Bahrain licence, the company can provide secure, compliant, and real-time payment infrastructure to banks and businesses. Bahrain is one of the region’s most progressive financial systems, underpinned by agile regulation, public-private collaboration, and a clear commitment to digital innovation. The Central Bank of Bahrain has created a regulatory foundation that invites innovation while maintaining oversight, allowing next-generation platforms like Pay10 to contribute meaningfully to the Kingdom’s digital transformation.
According to the Central Bank of Bahrain’s March 2025 Financial Stability Report, the country’s payment landscape is undergoing accelerated digitalization. In the second half of 2024 alone, POS and e-commerce transactions rose by 20.4% in volume and 14.6% in value. The Fawri+ real-time payment system, a critical component of Bahrain’s domestic rails, saw its transaction volume increase by 20.5%, and value grow by 13.2%. Additionally, contactless payments now account for more than 77% of all point-of-sale transactions, reflecting a decisive shift in consumer behavior. The CBB projects that contactless, QR-based, and wallet-enabled payments will overtake traditional methods as the primary mode of retail transactions.
With over 90% of Bahrain’s businesses classified as small and medium enterprises, the demand for cost-effective, interoperable, and real-time payment infrastructure has never been higher. Yet many of these businesses remain underserved by legacy systems. Pay10 is designed to close that gap.
The company is ready to help Bahrain’s growing fintech ecosystem with new payment services that follow the rules now that it has the Pay10 Bahrain licence.