Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and financial firm ARP Group have partnered to launch an AI-native wholesale bank based in the Kingdom. The venture, revealed at the Gateway Gulf 2026 conference in Manama on 1 November 2026, has secured preliminary regulatory clearance from the Central Bank of Bahrain to build out institutional services.
Key points
- Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company and ARP Group plan to launch a regulated wholesale bank running on artificial intelligence and blockchain architecture.
- The proposed entity has in-principle approval from the Central Bank of Bahrain and must obtain full licensing before opening client operations.
- Target customers include regulated financial firms, payment networks, and multinational corporations handling cross-border flows.
- ARP Group brings infrastructure from crypto asset service provider ARP Digital and macro hedge fund ARP Global Capital.
What the bank will build
The project pairs Mumtalakat’s sovereign capital with ARP Group’s trading and digital asset systems, according to a joint statement announced on November 1, 2026. The founders intend to build an institution focused on corporate clients whose treasuries operate across multiple currencies and jurisdictions.
Under its operating design, the bank intends to run artificial intelligence systems across its core workflows. Routine clearing, liquidity monitoring, and treasury settlements will be exposed directly to corporate clients via programmable application programming interfaces. Human compliance officers, governance committees, and risk managers will maintain oversight of the automated pipelines.
Wholesale banking has historically relied on manual reconciliation between regional correspondent banks. The partners said software-driven routing can reduce the expense and operational friction that institutional clients face when settling funds through fragmented networks. Features will be rolled out in staged releases shaped by discussions with prospective corporate users.
Regulatory milestones and approvals
The bank has secured in-principle approval from the Central Bank of Bahrain. Regulated commercial operations will start only after the partners obtain full operating clearance from the financial authority, which oversees both conventional wholesale banking and digital asset categories.
Bahrain has actively positioned its financial centre as a testing ground for automated financial software. Institutional adoption of modern architecture has accelerated across regional capitals, mirroring broader market appetite seen when Microsoft issued debt to fund infrastructure and private syndicates raised dedicated funds for applied computing ventures.
The partners behind the venture
Mumtalakat is the state investment vehicle of Bahrain. The fund was established on 29 June 2006 under Royal Decree No. 64 of 2006 and operates as a closed Bahrain shareholding company, according to details on the fund’s corporate governance page. The chairman of the Bahrain Economic Development Board appoints members to its board of directors.
Mumtalakat’s chief executive, Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, described financial institutions as a long-standing foundation of Bahrain’s economic base. He said the investment aims to advance the sector’s market position, provide high-quality employment for Bahraini specialists, and generate durable returns tied to regional expansion.
ARP Group acts as the holding umbrella for two main financial entities: ARP Global Capital and ARP Digital. ARP Digital was co-founded by Yusuf Alireza alongside twin brothers Abdulla and Abdulaziz Kanoo, whose family has operated the regional Kanoo Group conglomerate for 135 years.
According to ARP Digital’s website, the firm is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as a Category 3 Capital Market-Crypto Assets Service Provider and is registered with Canada’s FINTRAC. Its operations include Convert, an over-the-counter digital asset liquidity desk settling transactions continuously in fiat currencies or stablecoins, as well as remittance corridors and corporate payout channels. ARP Digital has handled more than $3.5 billion in transaction volume across more than 10 currencies for 450 corporate clients.
ARP Global Capital manages a macro hedge fund, according to ARP Global Capital’s leadership page. Alireza serves as founder, chief executive and chief investment officer of the firm. Prior to establishing the investment business, he spent two decades across Goldman Sachs divisions in London, New York and Hong Kong, becoming the bank’s first Arab partner in 2004 and joining its global management committee in 2011. Between 2012 and 2016, he led Asian commodity merchant Noble Group as chief executive.
Alireza, who also sits on the Bahrain Economic Development Board according to Alireza’s ARP Digital biography, said corporate treasurers still contend with fractured correspondent channels when moving funds internationally.
“We see an opportunity to combine a regulated bank’s balance sheet and institutional relationships with blockchain enabled technology and AI,” Alireza said.
What happens next
Mumtalakat and ARP Group will focus on fulfilling Central Bank of Bahrain licensing requirements before onboarding their first institutional customers. Regulators will evaluate the bank’s automated risk engines, balance-sheet controls, and interface security before granting the final wholesale banking licence.
