Payward and SGB Launch 24/7 Settlement for Institutional Clients
Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has teamed up with Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) to offer 24/7 U.S. dollar settlement services to select institutional clients in Asia and the Gulf. The partnership, announced on October 5, 2026, allows qualifying clients to settle transactions at any hour through SGB Net, a real-time multi-currency clearing network. The initial phase focuses on U.S. dollars and a limited group of institutional customers in supported jurisdictions.
SGB Net enables participating customers to transfer fiat funds without waiting for standard banking hours, allowing eligible SGB clients to deposit money with Payward and make funds available for trading immediately, including on weekends. Payward’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mark Greenberg, highlighted the issue of settlement not aligning with continuous trading hours, stating, “settlement stops when the business day does.”
The agreement also extends to Kraken Prime, which will serve as another liquidity source for Singapore Gulf Bank. SGB plans to use Payward’s markets for pricing trades for its own customers in the coming months. The partnership builds on Payward’s previous 24/7 settlement collaboration with SoFi in the U.S., further expanding its reach into Asian and Gulf markets.
Singapore Gulf Bank’s SGB Net, launched in May 2025, processes over $20 billion in fiat transactions monthly. The bank is regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain and backed by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and Singapore-based Whampoa Group. The bank has also partnered with Standard Chartered and J.P. Morgan to enhance its payment and correspondent banking infrastructure.