Bahrain Bourse (BHB), a licensed exchange by the Central Bank of Bahrain, has unveiled ‘Comprehensive Trading Incentive Scheme’, coming into effect on 2nd February 2025.
The new scheme seeks to boost market participation, drive liquidity, and encourage active engagement among brokers, market makers, and liquidity providers through innovative incentive mechanisms. This falls in line with Financial Services Sector Development Strategy (2022-2026), and supports the Listing Incentives Program recently launched by Bahrain Bourse during 2024.
The goal of the Trading Incentives Scheme is to offer a range of tailored benefits to support market participants and incentivize market makers, liquidity providers, and other brokers to boost their volume of trades executed pursuant to the business rules of Bahrain Bourse and cleared by Bahrain Clear, which will stimulate further liquidity in the market.
Abdulla Mohamed Janahi Senior Director of Trading Operations – Bahrain Bourse
“The Comprehensive Trading Incentive Scheme is a significant step in our ongoing efforts to enhance market efficiency and encourage active participation across all market segments. By introducing these targeted incentives, we aim to create a dynamic and inclusive capital market environment, in line with Bahrain’s Financial Services Sector Development Strategy (2022-2026). By incentivizing greater market engagement, Bahrain Bourse aims to deepen market liquidity, encourage active trading, and bolster the overall capital market ecosystem in the Kingdom of Bahrain.”
Newly joined members providing online connectivity will benefit from 20 percent discount on Membership Registration Fees and 100 percent discount on Membership Annual Subscription Fees for the first two years for one connection. In addition, for existing members trading through online connectivity, the scheme provides tiered rebates based on their annual trading value.
Members trading more than $199 million (BD 75 million) annually are eligible for a 10 percent rebate on commissions, increasing to 20 percent rebate on commissions for annual trading value above $372 million (BD 140 million), and reaching to 30 percent rebate on commissions for annual trading value exceeding $585 million (BD 220 million). The rebates are capped at $53,000 (BD 20,000) per year and will be calculated based on total commissions paid to Bahrain Bourse.
Additionally, market makers and liquidity providers will benefit from a unique rebate structure linked to their order presence time in the market. Those maintaining order presence between 60 percent and 80 percent of the time for each security will get a 50 percent rebate on commissions.
Market makers and liquidity providers with orders presence time of 80 percent and above will qualify for a 100 percent rebate on commissions. Rebates for market makers and liquidity providers will also be calculated annually, based on total commissions paid to Bahrain Bourse.
