The Central Bank of Bahrain announced the registration of a strong batch of licenses of financial institutions from the beginning of the year 2024 until the middle of the year 2025, where 16 new financial institutions were approved, while 52 licensing requests are still under study in the advanced evaluation stages.
This steady growth comes to reflect the attractiveness of the Kingdom of Bahrain as a leading destination for digital financial services, and international requests represent about 75% of the total 68 requests submitted. It is expected that these financial institutions will contribute to creating more than 850 jobs in the initial stages, with expectations of more job opportunities with the expansion of these institutions in their work.
It is also worth noting that 16 financial institutions were licensed during this period, including two banks within the wholesale sector, in addition to the presence of other bank license applications currently under study. The Central Bank of Bahrain continues to cooperate closely with current licensing applications with the aim of supporting them in fulfilling the necessary requirements to obtain the license.
On this occasion, Mr. Khaled Ibrahim Humaidan, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, stated: “This rise in licensing requests reflects the integration of the role of the institutional bank, and the effectiveness of the organizational framework that we adopt in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which supports attracting innovation while ensuring financial stability, as this achievement came as a close fruit Regional and global growth in the financial services sector. “
This success is based on the unified organizational model of the Central Bank of Bahrain, which provides licensed institutions one point of communication that covers the various sub -sectors of the financial services sector, as this model contributes to canceling the conflict of the requirements of multiple bodies, simplifying compliance procedures, and providing consistent supervision.
The announcement of this achievement came during the “Financial Services Prospects: Intensifying efforts in the digital transformation”, which was organized in partnership with the Economic Development Council in Bahrain, where the sector leaders met to highlight the progress that
The Kingdom has achieved it in developing digital banking and infrastructure services, and developing cadres to keep pace with the requirements of digital transformation.
