What happened
- Specific facts/numbers: Ledger Insights reported that Partior’s network currently supports three currencies—USD, EUR and SGD—and that adding BHD would expand both the currency set and Partior’s jurisdictional reach.
- Institutions involved: The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) signed the exploratory memorandum with Partior, whose backers include DBS, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered and Temasek.
- Regulatory/technical context: The parties said they will assess whether NBB could serve as a Bahraini dinar settlement bank on Partior’s blockchain-based network, including the operating model, implementation requirements, technical feasibility and Bahrain regulatory requirements; the article characterizes the deal as exploratory rather than a firm commitment.
- What to watch next: Watch for whether NBB and Partior move beyond feasibility work to a formal implementation decision and any related regulatory approvals in Bahrain; no specific next milestone was identified.
Why it matters
If implemented, this could extend 24/7 tokenized interbank settlement to the Bahraini dinar and test whether smaller regional currencies can plug into new cross-border payment rails rather than rely solely on correspondent banking.
HKMA Relevance
Indirect: This is a foreign cross-border payments infrastructure exploration, but it is relevant to Hong Kong because banks there are also assessing tokenized deposit and settlement-network models for regional and international payments.