MANAMA: Online banking continues to gather momentum in Bahrain, with an eight-fold jump in real-time fund transfers, show the latest infographics released by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).
Transactions within the country using Fawri, Fawri+ and Fawateer services, enabled by the Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS), have seen substantial growth in July this year when compared with the same month last year, the data shows.
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.
Fawri+ accounted for the vast majority, 79pc, of EFTS transactions, followed by Fawri and Fawateer at 14pc and 7pc respectively.
However, in terms of value, Fawri was the leader claiming 80pc, followed by Fawri+ at 17pc and Fawateer at 3pc.
The number of transactions completed through Fawri+ in July 2020 amounted to 4,541,517, up 783.1pc (eight-fold) from 514,275 in July 2019 and 36.9pc from 3,316,542 in June 2020.
In terms of value, Fawri+ transactions amounted to BD224.6m in July 2020, up 380.3pc from BD46.8m in July 2019 and 19.8pc from BD187.4m in June 2020.
As for Fawri, the number of transactions jumped by 18.3pc to 809,907 in July 2020, when compared with 684,376 in July 2019 and by 16.5pc when compared with 695,117 in June 2020.
However, the total value of Fawri transactions at BD1,092.9m in July 2020 was down 12pc from BD1,242.6m in July 2019 and by 10.4pc from BD1,220.1m in June 2020.
The number of transactions made through the Fawateer service in July 2020 were 392,456, 123.1pc higher than 175,905 in July last year, and 27.6pc higher than 307,482 in June 2020.
In terms of value, Fawateer transactions amounted to BD42.3m in July 2020, 18.4pc lower from BD51.8m in July 2019, and 26.2pc higher than BD335m in June 2020.
The CBB data shows also that credit card and debit card transactions across point of sale (POS) terminals saw a drop of 12.5pc in value amounting to BD196.4m in July 2020, when compared with BD224.6m for the same month last year.
Providing an insight into how sales and services have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis in Bahrain, the statistics, however, show that the number of transactions has gone up by 10.3pc to 7,150,035 last month from 6,484,277 in July last year.
When compared to June 2020, when it was BD175.3m, the value of POS transactions has gone up by 12.1pc, while the number of transactions has risen by 15.5pc from 6,190,271.
A deep dive into the data shows that restaurants was the top usage sector accounting for 1,536,266 transactions; followed by 1,324,498 in supermarkets; 1,038,636 in department stores; 544,515 in healthcare providers; and 476,516 in clothing and footwear stores.
Bahraini debit cards comprised 82pc of transactions, while Bahraini credit cards were used in 15pc of transaction in restaurants.
Similarly, 74pc of supermarket transactions were done using Bahraini debit cards, which also accounted for 72pc of transactions in department stores, 74pc in health, and 76pc of clothing and footwear purchases.
In terms of value, government services led the top five usage sectors, accounting for BD41.9m last month, followed by department stores with BD22.6m, supermarkets in third place with BD14.5m, health taking in BD12.9m and clothing and footwear in fifth place with BD11.7m.
The data also shows that Bahraini credit cards were used in 79pc of government services transactions, whereas Bahraini debit cards accounted for the majority of transactions in the other categories; 68pc, 69pc, 66pc and 67pc in department stores, supermarkets, health, and clothing and footwear stores, respectively.
The CBB said it operates a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system where all inter-bank and customer transaction payments are processed and settled in real-time, on-line mode.
As many as 25,038 transactions went through RTGS in July 2020, registering a growth of 7.28pc compared to July 2019 when total transactions stood at 23,340.
However, in terms of value, July 2020 witnessed a decrease of 34.24pc as total transactions worth BD6.207 billion were handled by the system compared to BD9.439bn in July 2019.
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