Kraken parent Payward adds 24/7 dollar settlement with Singapore Gulf Bank
In brief
- Payward integrated SGB Net, Singapore Gulf Bank's real-time clearing network, for 24/7 US dollar settlement.
- Select institutional clients in Asia and the Gulf region can access the service.
- Payward and SGB plan to expand the service to more clients and currencies.
- SGB plans to tap Kraken Prime liquidity and Payward pricing in the coming months.
How the SGB Net integration works
Payward integrated SGB Net, the real-time clearing network run by the Bahrain-regulated bank, according to the companies' release as reported by Cointelegraph. Speed is what this is about. Eligible clients can settle US dollar transactions instantly, and they can do it around the clock instead of waiting for business hours.
It's a narrow rollout for now. Only select institutions in Asia and the Gulf region are covered, though the companies said they plan to expand the service to more clients and currencies.
What Singapore Gulf Bank gets
The deal runs both ways. Singapore Gulf Bank plans to access digital asset liquidity through Kraken Prime (Payward's prime brokerage service) and to use Payward's markets to price customer trades, per the release. Both are framed as plans for the coming months, so they aren't live yet.
That gives a regulated Gulf bank a direct line into crypto liquidity, while Payward gets a bank rail for dollars that doesn't shut off on weekends.
Banks push settlement past business hours
Payward and SGB aren't alone here. Cointelegraph noted that banks and financial firms are developing similar services to speed up settlement and extend it beyond business hours.
A consortium including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Barclays plans to launch a tokenized deposit network operated by The Clearing House in the first half of 2027, enabling 24/7 settlement. In Japan, Circle and Nomura have reportedly partnered to offer companies instant foreign exchange settlement from 2027 (Cointelegraph described that tie-up as reported, not announced). And on Sept. 21, the Bank of Korea unveiled a pilot project letting foreign investors settle won transactions outside regular banking hours.
Different players, different currencies, same direction.
