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Crypto Trading Platform Rain Gets Faster, Direct Payments
The partnership with Tarabut Gateway is the first “directly integrated” open banking API in the MENA crypto sector.
Tarabut Gateway, the largest open banking platform in the MENA region, has announced a new partnership with Rain, the region’s first fully-regulated crypto assets trading platform.
Rain is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as a crypto broker and offers users a safe, secure space to buy and sell crypto and store their assets. Meanwhile, Tarabut Gateway provides connectivity for payments between banks and fintech, offering a smooth, fast payment process for end users.
The partnership is the first of its kind in the MENA region. It will help to bring about faster, lower-cost fiat-to-crypto transfers to end-users in Bahrain, enabling direct payments from bank accounts without the need to leave Rain’s platform.
“We’re delighted to unveil a solution to make fiat-to-crypto transfers quicker, more secure, and cost-effective. Our partnership with Rain is a perfect cross-sector synergy, made possible by Bahrain’s advanced open banking ecosystem,” says Abdulla Almoayed, Founder and CEO of Tarabut Gateway.
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The new payment method utilizes Tarabut Gateway’s open banking solution to facilitate fiat-crypto-fiat transfers, reducing errors and unlocking significantly increased transfer speeds compared to traditional bank services. The upgrade is part of Rain’s strategy to provide users with a premium, seamless crypto wallet experience.
“Through quick and efficient deposit mechanisms, crypto traders on Rain’s platform will now be able to seamlessly fund their accounts and capitalize on market movements,” says Joseph Dallago, Chief Executive Officer of Rain.
The partnership comes as MENA’s crypto sector expands at a breakneck pace. According to Chainalysis, the region is the world’s fastest-growing crypto market, with trading volumes climbing nearly 50% in the year to June 2022.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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