BFC (Bahrain Financing Company)
“Can a century-old Bahrain remittance incumbent become the digital-first payments and FX platform for the Gulf's expatriate workforce?”
Founded1917
HQManama, Bahrain
IndustryFintech / Cross-border payments
The story
Founded in 1917 as a gold bullion trader, BFC transitioned into remittance services in the 1970s to serve Bahrain's growing expatriate population, becoming the leading money transfer and FX company in the Kingdom. Over the last decade, BFC has layered a digital payments subsidiary (BFC Payments) on top of its retail remittance network, launching prepaid payroll cards, digital wallets, and a super-app. The group was acquired by Al Ansari Financial Services, signalling consolidation in Gulf remittance and cross-border payments infrastructure.
Product timeline
1917
Founded in Bahrain as a gold bullion trading company.· pivot
1970
Entered the remittance market to serve the growing expatriate community in Bahrain.· pivot
2008
BFC Group Holdings W.L.L. established as holding company, parented by Alkhair Holding B.S.C.· pivot
2018
BFC Payments incorporated as a fully owned subsidiary, licensed by CBB as Ancillary Service Provider for card processing and payment services.· card
2018
Launched BFC Pay App — a digital wallet app enabling tokenization of cards and e-wallet loading for Bahrain residents.· banking
2024
BFC Group Holdings acquired by Al Ansari Financial Services, becoming an operating subsidiary.· acquisition
Regulated entities
2
regulatory licences held by BFC (Bahrain Financing Company)
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
2 layers disclosed in BFC (Bahrain Financing Company)’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
BFC Pay (self-operated)
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
2 more providers across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.