Payward–SGB 24/7 USD settlement for institutional clients

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has integrated Singapore Gulf Bank’s SGB Net real‑time, multi‑currency clearing network to enable 24/7 U.S. dollar settlement for a selected group of institutional clients in Asia and the Gulf. The initial rollout covers USD transactions only and a limited set of eligible customers; both firms said they plan to add more clients and currencies over time but did not provide a timetable. Liquidity and trade‑pricing for the arrangement will flow through Kraken Prime, Payward’s institutional prime brokerage arm, and SGB said it will use Payward’s markets to price customer trades in the coming months.

The partnership sits within a broader Payward strategy to create regulated banking connections and continuous settlement rails. SGB Net went live in May 2025, and the companies cite that the network now processes more than $20 billion in fiat transactions monthly; an earlier February 2026 update had cited more than $2 billion monthly volume, indicating growth in throughput. Singapore Gulf Bank operates under a license from the Central Bank of Bahrain and is backed by Mumtalakat and the Whampoa Group. SGB has added correspondent links and partnerships—such as with Standard Chartered and J.P. Morgan—and adopted services like Wire 365 to provide uninterrupted dollar clearing across borders.

Payward has pursued similar integrations elsewhere: in September 2026 it announced a 24/7 USD settlement tie‑up with SoFi, which also connected Kraken Prime as an additional liquidity source. Separately, Payward filed an OCC charter application in May seeking to create Payward National Trust Company as a federally regulated U.S. digital‑asset custodian; that application remained pending at the time of reporting. The new SGB connection extends Payward’s model into selected Asian and Gulf jurisdictions, offering institutions the ability to move funds when markets move rather than waiting for traditional banking windows, while specific details on supported cryptocurrencies, expected trading volume and the full list of participating institutions have not been disclosed.