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SIMAH, BENEFIT Launch Credit Information Exchange Project

The project aims to enhance transparency in financial transactions
The project aims to enhance transparency in financial transactions
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SIMAH, BENEFIT Launch Credit Information Exchange Project

The project aims to enhance transparency in financial transactions
The project aims to enhance transparency in financial transactions

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have launched the technical linking process of the credit information exchange project between banking institutions operating in the two countries.

The Bahrain Electronic Network for Financial Transactions (BENEFIT) and the Saudi Credit Bureau (SIMAH) revealed on Sunday that this step comes in implementation of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s Supreme Council decision issued at it 37th session in 2016.

The decision stipulates approving to exchange credit information in accordance with the work plan and the comprehensive framework and the mechanism for facilitating the exchange of credit information among the GCC member states.

The project aims to enhance transparency in financial transactions in the Gulf and provide financial tools that contribute to reducing credit risks associated with any financial transaction for any economic activity, in a way that promotes the growth of these activities.

Saudi Central Bank Governor Fahad al-Mubarak said this step comes in line with objectives of the Kingdom Vision 2030’s Financial Sector Development Program, which targets launching strategic projects that enhance cooperation frameworks among GCC states, offer greater investment opportunities and ensure their stability and economic growth.

Mubarak explained that the financial sector relies on such strategic projects to achieve GCC states’ common goals.

Bahrain’s Central Bank Governor Rasheed al-Maraj, for his part, said the initiative is an implementation of both governments’ visions and directives and the future role in developing and enhancing banking transactions.

The project provides decision-making support processes for commercial relations and partnerships in accordance with an advanced system of information and audited data provided by the authorities concerned with credit information reports, which enhances confidence and transparency and provides broader areas of mutual commercial work.

This step maximizes the role of the credit information industry and is considered a key force to tighten the grip of control and supervision, increase levels of transparency and contribute to supporting the stability of the financial sector of the GCC states.

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US Labor Market Slows Despite Job Adds in May

Commuters cross Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, during the morning rush hour. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
Commuters cross Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, during the morning rush hour. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
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US Labor Market Slows Despite Job Adds in May

Commuters cross Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, during the morning rush hour. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
Commuters cross Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, during the morning rush hour. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

The United States added 139,000 jobs in May, more than expected but pointing to a labor market that continues to slow.

The employment data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics exceeded forecasts for about 120,000 payroll gains but marked a decline from the revised 147,000 jobs added in April. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%, remaining near historic lows.

Stocks surged at Friday's open, with all three major indexes gaining about 1%.

In return, US government borrowing costs climbed as investors anticipated the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates higher for longer, making it less attractive to hold US debt.

The BLS report showed job losses in the federal government continued to pile up, with that sector shedding 22,000 roles in May alone.

The federal workforce is down by 59,000 since January, largely due to sweeping cuts by the Trump administration and multibillionaire tech executive Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency project.

Even as the economy continued to add jobs at a relatively steady clip last month, the report showed other signs of a weakening labor market.

The ratio of employed workers to the total population fell to 59.7%, its lowest since the pandemic.

An alternative measure of unemployment that includes “discouraged” workers, or those who have stopped looking for work, returned to a post-pandemic high of 4.5%.

But President Donald Trump cheered the numbers, posting on his Truth Social platform Friday morning: “AMERICA IS HOT! SIX MONTHS AGO IT WAS COLD AS ICE! BORDER IS CLOSED, PRICES ARE DOWN. WAGES ARE UP!”

Trump had urged Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to slash interest rates by a full percentage point.

“Too Late' at the Fed is a disaster!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

In reality, employers added 212,000 jobs in November, unemployment was at 4.1%, the 12-month average of hourly pay gains have softened from nearly 4.2% then to 3.9% in May, and both the labor force participation rate and the employment-to-population ratio were slightly higher.

Only consumer prices have meaningfully cooled, ticking down from an annual inflation rate of 2.7% in November to 2.3% in April, the latest month with available data.

Analysts at Capital Economics called the May jobs report “not as good as it looks.”

Still, they wrote in a note Friday, “it shows that tariffs are having little negative impact” and added that the Federal Reserve is likely to continue holding interest rates steady “while it assesses the effects of policy changes on the economy.”