The Benefit Company

Local switch in Kingdom of Bahrain

The Benefit Company
شركة بنفت

Company type	Interbank network
Industry	Finance
Founded	November 1997
Headquarters	Bahrain
Products	Financial services
Website	www.benefit.bh

The Benefit Company (TBC) is the local switch in the Kingdom of Bahrain handling ATM and POS transactions among other services. Established in 1997 with a special license from the Central Bank of Bahrain as "Provider of Ancillary Services to the Financial Sector",^[1] it is the only financial network of its kind in the country.

ATM and POS

Benefit's initial services included connecting the ATM services of the local banks in Bahrain and handling the settlements. In addition, it connected the POS terminals to all the local issuers in the Kingdom.

GCCNET

In addition to local switching, Benefit is also connected to GCC Net, the main switch operating on all GCC countries. A connection was also established with Shetab in 2005; linking all BENEFIT users with Iran's only switch.

Payment gateway

In 2006, the company offered the payment gateway service, integrating more of the local banks onto one payment hub, allowing banks and their merchants to perform online transactions.^[2]

Electronic check clearing

In May 2012, Benefit started running the nation's check truncation system. Thus, enabling 29 banks in the Kingdom to settle checks the same day.^[3]

References

^ "Bahrain Electronic Network for Financial Transactions". Benefitco.com.bh. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
^ [1] Archived May 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
^ "Central Bank of Bahrain Starts Running Live ProgressSoft's Electronic Check Clearing Solution across the Kingdom | ProgressSoft Corporation". Progressoft.com. 12 May 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2013.