Singapore-based family office Whampoa Group will open a digital bank in Bahrain, the Kingdom's Economic Development Council said on May 18. The group expects to open the bank by the end of this year and is targeting a global customer base.
The bank will provide digital asset trading, custody and management in digital banking services. According to Bloomberg, the Central Bank of Bahrain has "approved in principle" the bank pending its fulfillment of all requirements.
The Whampoa Group is linked to two prominent Singaporean Lee families - including Amy Lee, the niece of Singaporean politician Lee Kuan Yew, and Lee Hon Shil of Singaporean multimedia conglomerate Potato Productions. Whampoa Digital was created in 2021, according to its LinkedIn p age. It participated in a $500 million investment fund created in June 2022 by Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of the cryptocurrency exchange. In September, it announced the creation of its own $100 million venture capital fund to back a capital fund for Web3 startups. I t is Also an investor in ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
A Chainalysis report released in October found that the Middle East and North Africa region has the fastest-growing cryptocurrency market in the world. Whampoa Group CEO Shawn Chan said the company chose the Kingdom of Bahrain for the initiative because of "Bahrain's strong reputation in the financial services sector, transparent regulatory framework and continued commitment to collaboration and innovation."
Binance received a license to operate in Bahrain in March 2022, and local payments platform EazyPay partnered with Binance Pay in October to make cryptocurrencies available at more than 5,000 points of sale in the country. Bahrain is also home to the Sharia-compliant CoinMENA cry ptocurrency exchange .
