A method and system of processing database transactions in a distributed online transaction processing (OLTP) database is provided. Overhead and network bandwidth associated with a global transaction manager are reduced and scalability improved by determining whether incoming statements are single-shard or multi-shard. For single-shard statements, a local transaction identifier (TXID) stored and associated with a data record reference by the statement is retrieved. The retrieved TXID is compared against a copy of a list of prepared transactions that are pending in a respective data node. If the TXID is in the copy of the prepared list, the statement is caused to await until the previous transaction has been committed or aborted. The visibility of a change committed by the previous is then determined, and the statement is processed.