Payward, the parent firm of Kraken crypto exchange, has integrated Singapore Gulf Bank's SGB Net, a real-time multi-currency clearing network. The integration enables institutional clients to settle qualifying transactions instantly and continuously, rather than waiting for traditional bank cut-off times that can extend settlement over multiple days.
The partnership, announced on October 5, begins with U.S. dollar transactions for a select group of clients in supported jurisdictions. Payward said it plans to expand to additional clients and currencies in the future. Through SGB Net, clients can deposit funds with Payward and deploy them immediately at any time of day or night.
As part of the arrangement, Singapore Gulf Bank is onboarding Kraken Prime, Payward's institutional prime brokerage offering, as an additional source of digital asset liquidity. The bank expects to use Payward's markets to price trades for its own customers over the coming months.
Mark Greenberg, Chief Commercial Officer of Payward, stated that settlement infrastructure has not kept pace with markets that operate continuously. "Exchanges, payment providers, OTC desks and fintechs all run into the same banking constraint. Settlement stops when the business day does, while their markets do not," Greenberg said in the announcement.
Recent partnerships expanding institutional infrastructure
The SGB Net integration follows other recent efforts by Payward to integrate regulated banking services with its institutional offerings. Payward previously partnered with SoFi Technologies to enable round-the-clock dollar settlement, with SoFi listing its bank-issued stablecoin SoFiUSD on Kraken and routing digital asset liquidity through Kraken Prime.
Payward is also engaged in private discussions with BNY regarding a broad partnership covering digital assets, custody, wealth management, trading, and payments through Payward Services, its B2B platform.
Earlier this year, Nasdaq invested in Payward to deepen their strategic partnership and accelerate development of financial infrastructure supporting tokenized equities trading, clearing, and settlement.
