| The Benefit Company شركة بنفت | |
| Foundation: | November 1997 |
| Location: | Bahrain |
| Industry: | Finance |
| Products: | Financial services |
| Homepage: | www.benefit.bh |
| Type: | Interbank network |
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.
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.
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.
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]
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]