Pay10, a global Alternative Payment Method (APM) platform, has been granted Ancillary Service Provider – Payment Service Provider License by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).
This regulatory approval represents a strategic milestone in Pay10’s global expansion and “reinforces its commitment to delivering real-time, secure, and inclusive payment solutions for both consumers and businesses.”
With this license, Pay10 will deliver mobile-first interoperable infrastructure designed to integrate “with Bahrain’s domestic payment rails, ensuring compliance, speed, and reliability across every transaction and directly contributing to the Kingdom’s broader vision for financial inclusion and diversified economic growth.”
Harry Gill, Pay10 Chairman, said their goal is to “build real-time, regulator-aligned payment systems that put users, both consumers and merchants, at the center of the digital economy.”
Bahrain is one of the region’s most “progressive financial systems, underpinned by agile regulation, public-private collaboration, and a clear commitment to digital innovation.”
The Central Bank of Bahrain has created “a regulatory foundation that invites innovation while maintaining oversight, allowing next-generation platforms like Pay10 to contribute meaningfully to the Kingdom’s digital transformation.”
According to the Central Bank of Bahrain’s March 2025 Financial Stability Report, “the country’s payment landscape is undergoing accelerated digitalization.”
In the second half of 2024 alone, POS and e-commerce transactions “rose by 20.4% in volume and 14.6% in value.”
The Fawri+ real-time payment system, “a critical component of Bahrain’s domestic rails, saw its transaction volume increase by 20.5%, and value grow by 13.2%.”
Additionally, contactless payments now account for “more than 77% of all point-of-sale transactions, reflecting a decisive shift in consumer behavior.”
The CBB projects that contactless, “QR-based, and wallet-enabled payments will overtake traditional methods as the primary mode of retail transactions.”
With over 90% of Bahrain’s businesses classified as small and medium enterprises, the demand for “cost-effective, interoperable, and real-time payment infrastructure has never been higher.”
Yet many of these businesses “remain underserved by legacy systems.”
Pay10 is designed to “close that gap.”
As noted in the update, Pay10 is a global Alternative Payment Method (APM) platform that offers “a mobile-first solution for instant payments, merchant services, remittances, and real-time cross-border transactions.”
Designed to support national schemes and digital-first economies, the platform combines “stored value, wallet-based transfers, and QR-driven payments into a single, seamless user experience.”
The company is headquartered in the UAE with “registered offices in 12 countries.”