Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait joins Binance's Link Program in MOU agreement

The Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) is the first Gulf Cooperation Council banking institution to become part of the Binance initiative. As plannned, the endeavor supports enterprises in building crypto services through its technology while earning trading fees as commission. 

The Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to join the Binance Link Program during the two-day-long Gateway Gulf Investment Forum Bahrain 2025, ending Monday. 

The announcement was made in the presence of government officials, investors, and business leaders who came to Bahrain to discuss how to improve financial innovation in the Gulf Council region.

According to the retail bank’s press statement published on Wednesday, BBK will integrate Binance’s white-label Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) solution directly into its mobile banking app. 

The service will be enabled through plug & play APIs, where BBK customers can buy, sell, and manage their crypto holdings without the need to open or manage separate Binance accounts. A dedicated dashboard inside BBK’s mobile app will allow customers to view their digital assets together with their traditional account investments. 

The bank’s executives said the Binance collaboration is in tandem with the Bahrain government’s vision to become a financial center with strong fintech adoption. It could also improve BBK’s banking systems by adding financial products like digital assets within one user-friendly platform.

BBK takes steps toward embedded digital finance

According to Yaser Alsharifi, BBK’s Group Chief Executive BBK intends to have a customer base secure enough to access investment opportunities.

The General Manager for Binance Bahrain, Tameem Al Moosawi, lauded the bank for signing the MoU, saying it would help “Bahrain’s position as a regional leader in crypto-asset innovation.”

Catherine Chen, Binance’s Head of VIP and Institutional business, supported the two executive’s sentiments and added that institutional demand for crypto services within the GCC region was growing exponentially.

“We are pleased to collaborate with BBK to help them offer these assets to their clients at scale, unlocking new growth potential,” she surmised.

The Binance partnership comes against the backdrop of another signed memorandum with ATME, a digital asset exchange licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain. Much like the Binance one, this MoU was also unveiled during an event named the FinTech Forward 2025 conference, held in early October at the Exhibition World Bahrain.

BBK and ATME agreed to jointly explore tokenization opportunities by applying Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to asset management and investments. 

“BBK is a pioneering wealth management and investment solutions provider for clients, and we are delighted to announce this partnership with ATME. Digitizing our investment offerings and using tokenization as a tool will create a smoother trading experience and increased liquidity for our clients,” remarked Mohamed Al Rayes, BBK’s General Manager of Treasury and Investment.

BBK announces strong financial performance in Q3

The bank recently released its Q3 financial results ending September 30, reporting a net profit of BD 17.9 million in stocks available to its common shareholders after all expenses, taxes, and preferred dividends have been paid.

BBK’s earnings per share, the profitability that is calculated by dividing its net income by the number of its outstanding common shares, rose by about 8.5% to jump from 10 fils from 9 fils. The total comprehensive income for the owners of the bank surged 115% to BD 44.5 million, compared to BD 20.7 million counted between July and September last year. 

The increase in net profit came from a 6.1% uptrend in net fees and commission income, which grew from BD 4.9 million to BD 5.2 million, although there was a 72.6% decline in net provisions that came down to around BD 2 million. 

BBK also recorded a BD 0.3 million profit from associates and joint ventures to counter a drain of BD 0.1 million in the previous year. Total assets grew by 9.6% to BD 4.6 billion in the nine months ending September, compared to BD 4.19 billion in December 2024. 

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