Beyon Connect, part of the Beyon Group, has announced the integration of Taptap Send, an international money transfer platform that recently launched in Bahrain, into the revamped eKey 2.0 ecosystem. The integration supports digital authentication of national identity and eKYC within the platform.
eKey 2.0 is Bahrain’s Digital Authentication of National Identity system, developed by Beyon Connect in partnership with the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA). The agreement was signed at the FinTech Forward forum in Bahrain by Richard Budel, Beyon Connect’s Chief Executive Officer, and Abdellatif Waked, Taptap Send’s Chief Executive Officer for the Middle East.
Taptap Send lets customers send money abroad through its mobile app, with transfers to more than 90 destinations across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Taptap Send Bahrain B.S.C. is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as a Payment Service Provider.
Customers can now use eKey 2.0 to verify their identity when they register and to reach the platform’s services. The companies said this gives them a secure, locally integrated authentication and eKYC journey, and cuts down on typing in identity document details by hand. They added that more private sector organisations in Bahrain are adopting eKey 2.0.
Richard Budel said the move shows how Bahrain’s national authentication and eKYC infrastructure can support international fintech firms entering the Kingdom, and that it makes onboarding simpler and more secure from the start.
“Taptap Send’s adoption of eKey 2.0 demonstrates how Bahrain’s national authentication and eKYC infrastructure can support international fintech companies entering the Kingdom. By providing trusted authentication and eKYC capabilities from the outset, eKey 2.0 enables businesses to integrate into Bahrain’s digital ecosystem while making onboarding simpler and more secure for their customers. We are pleased to support Taptap Send as it establishes and grows its services in Bahrain,” Budel said.
Abdellatif Waked said getting customers started easily is a core part of the experience Taptap Send wants to offer in Bahrain, and that the company is glad to benefit from Beyon Connect’s local expertise while building under the central bank’s supervision.
“Making it easy for customers to get started with Taptap Send is an important part of the experience we want to provide in Bahrain. Through the revamped eKey 2.0, customers can securely verify their identity using the national digital identity they already have. We are pleased to benefit from Beyon Connect’s local experience and expertise in digital identity authentication, and proud to be building under the supervision of the Central Bank of Bahrain,” Waked said.
For a money transfer provider entering a new market, signing up customers and checking who they are can be a slow first step, and using a national digital identity that people already hold could shorten it. For Beyon Connect, a licensed international fintech on eKey 2.0 is a useful example for other firms looking at Bahrain, though neither company has said how many customers use the feature or when it went live.
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What stands out is that the identity check is being treated as part of entering the market. A transfer company that wants to operate in a new country has to sign up customers and satisfy the local regulator before it moves any money, and Taptap Send is leaning on a national system that is already trusted instead of building its own. If that works, a national digital ID could become a quiet advantage for the countries that have one, since foreign payment firms may be able to launch faster and with fewer manual checks. With no customer numbers or live date shared, the thing to watch is whether other international transfer firms entering Bahrain adopt eKey 2.0 too.