Payward and Singapore Gulf Bank Launch 24/7 Institutional Digital Asset Settlement

Payward and Singapore Gulf Bank have partnered to integrate real-time multi-currency clearing for institutional digital asset markets. By connecting the SGB Net network to Payward’s financial infrastructure, the firms are enabling 24/7 instant settlement, addressing the long-standing friction between round-the-clock cryptocurrency trading and traditional banking hours for institutional players in specific jurisdictions.

What was announced

The partnership centers on the integration of SGB Net, a real-time multi-currency clearing network operated by Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB). This technical bridge allows institutional clients shared by both Payward and SGB to settle transactions instantly, bypassing the traditional T+2 or T+1 settlement cycles that have historically hampered institutional digital asset adoption. While digital asset markets operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the fiat legs of these trades have often been restricted by bank operating hours and manual processing times.

The rollout begins with US dollar transactions for a restricted group of clients, with the scope intended to broaden to include more participants and additional currencies over time. Beyond settlement, the collaboration involves SGB utilizing Kraken Prime, Payward’s full-service prime brokerage arm, to source liquidity for its own digital asset products. This allows the bank to price trades for its customers using Payward’s market depth. Over the coming months, SGB will draw on these markets to facilitate its own customer offerings.

SGB Net has demonstrated significant scale since its launch in 2025, currently processing over $20 billion in fiat transactions every month. The network is designed specifically for digital asset businesses, such as OTC desks and payment providers, that require high-velocity movement of capital. By embedding this into Payward Banking—the underlying "money layer" of the Payward platform—the companies aim to modernize the movement of cash across deposits, payments, and lending.

"Exchanges, payment providers, OTC desks and fintechs all run into the same banking constraint. Settlement stops when the business day does, while their markets do not. SGB has built settlement infrastructure that reflects the future of digital asset banking and payments."

Mark Greenberg, Chief Commercial Officer at Payward.

The companies involved

Payward, Inc. operates as a unified financial infrastructure platform, providing the architectural foundation for several major brands in the fintech and digital asset space. While it is most widely recognized as the infrastructure provider for the Kraken exchange, its ecosystem includes a diverse range of products such as NinjaTrader, the trading platform; Breakout; xStocks; and CF Benchmarks, a provider of cryptocurrency indices. Payward’s strategy focuses on a single shared architecture that allows users to manage assets across different classes—including equities and derivatives—without the friction typically associated with fragmented financial systems. The company has a significant footprint in the industry, with its various entities frequently appearing in market analysis.

Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) serves as a bridge between traditional finance and the digital economy, holding a full license from the Central Bank of Bahrain. The institution is backed by significant institutional capital, including Mumtalakat, the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the Whampoa Group, a prominent Singapore-based investment holding company. SGB focuses on providing corporate and personal banking services globally, utilizing digital onboarding to serve clients across multiple jurisdictions. Its infrastructure is built to handle the convergence of multi-currency accounts and international payments with native digital asset services.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has extensively tracked Payward’s expansion into regulated financial services and institutional infrastructure. In September 2026, we covered how Payward to Launch Regulated Onchain Perpetual Futures for US Clients via Hyperliquid, marking a significant move into the decentralized finance space for American institutional investors.

The platform’s role in solving settlement friction was also highlighted in our report on how the Entravel Group Launches Expereon to Unlock $80B in Global Travel Working Capital, where Payward’s technology was used to address liquidity gaps in the travel industry. Additionally, we reported on the regional adoption of Payward’s infrastructure in Asia when Alpha Ladder WealthX Launches Tokenised Equities for APAC Institutional Investors, utilizing the xStocks product to offer tokenized US equities to institutional players.

What this means

This partnership highlights the growing intolerance among institutional traders for the "banking gap"—the period where digital markets remain active but fiat liquidity remains locked behind legacy infrastructure. By integrating a Bahrain-regulated bank directly into its clearing layer, Payward is effectively challenging the dominance of traditional correspondent banking networks that rely on slow, manual messaging systems. The move puts immediate pressure on Tier-1 custodial banks to accelerate their own real-time settlement projects or risk losing institutional flow to digital-native challengers. It also raises questions about the future of regional hubs; as Bahrain and Singapore-backed entities collaborate to provide global liquidity, traditional financial centers face a competitive threat from jurisdictions that have more rapidly codified the intersection of fiat and digital assets.