Payward, the financial infrastructure platform behind Kraken, has integrated SGB Net, Singapore Gulf Bank's real-time multi-currency clearing network, in a partnership that lets institutional clients of both firms settle transactions instantly at any hour, the company said. The settlement offering is available in specific jurisdictions only and begins with US dollar transactions for a select number of clients, with plans to extend it to more clients and additional currencies over time.
SGB Net was launched in 2025 for digital asset businesses and now processes more than $20 billion in fiat transactions each month, according to the announcement. SGB is a fully licensed digital bank regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, backed by Mumtalakat, Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, and by Singapore's Whampoa Group.
SGB is also onboarding Kraken Prime, Payward's prime brokerage solution, as an additional source of digital asset liquidity. Over the coming months it will draw on Payward's markets to price trades for its own customers, the company said.
Mark Greenberg, Payward's chief commercial officer, said exchanges, payment providers, over-the-counter desks and fintechs run into the same banking constraint, because settlement stops when the business day does while their markets do not. Shawn Chan, SGB's chief executive, said access to liquidity is only useful if clients can move funds when they need to, and that connecting SGB Net with Payward and Kraken Prime gives clients more flexibility in how they fund and manage digital asset activity.
The partnership forms part of work on Payward Banking, which the company describes as the money layer behind the Payward platform and which covers deposits, payments, cards, custody and lending. Payward said it will continue to add banking partners.
