Cashless transactions in Bahrain rose 3.4 per cent to BD335.2 million last month when compared with the same month of 2022, reveals data from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).
A total of 15,505,256 point-of-sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions were recorded in the kingdom during September 2023, 77.4pc of them contactless, the banking regulator said.
The figures reflect a surge in online and digital payments that started in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and has gathered pace with the ever-evolving needs of consumers.
The highest number of transactions last month were carried out in restaurants (4,982,290), followed by supermarkets (3,922,776), automobile dealerships (988,031), government service centres (966,812) and healthcare providers (771,028).
In terms of value, government services at BD89.8m led the top five sectors, with restaurants at BD38.2m coming next, followed by supermarkets (BD35.2m), telecom services (BD24.6m) and automobile dealerships (BD18.6m).
The infographic shows electronic fund transfers in the kingdom increased during September 2023, extending the rising trend to more than two years.
Transactions using Fawri, Fawri+ and Fawateer services, enabled by the electronic fund transfer system (EFTS), continue to see substantial growth.
Fawri+ is an almost real-time fund transfer service which allows individuals or entities to transfer funds of up to BD1,000 per day in less than 30 seconds; whereas Fawri is a deferred settlement fund transfer service which allows individuals or entities to transfer any amount within a few hours of the business day, and Fawateer provides real-time bill payments.
Last month, Fawri+ accounted for the vast majority (93.7pc) of EFTS transactions, followed by Fawateer at 3.3pc and Fawri at 3pc.
However, in terms of transaction value, Fawri was the leader at 69.7pc, followed by Fawri+ at 27pc and Fawateer at 3.3pc.
The number of transactions completed through Fawri+ in September 2023 amounted to 28,520,939, up 35.37pc from the same month last year.
In terms of value, Fawri transactions amounted to BD1,544.08m last month, up 1.79pc from September 2022.
Also presented by the CBB was last month’s record of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system transactions, where the value of interbank transactions was BD9.209bn (3,711 in volume), while customer deals added up BD711m (22,965 in volume).
The value of successful payment gateway transactions was BD56.654m.
Over the same period there has been by a 14.14pc drop in volume of successful ATM withdrawals to 942,000 and a decline of 14.14pc in their value to BD91.65m.