A system and method can support processing a transaction with a plurality of transaction branches. A transaction manager operates to send, to a resource manager, a prepare request for each said transaction branch in the plurality of transaction branches with the exception of at least one transaction branch. Furthermore, after receiving an indication from the resource manager that the received preparation requests are handled successfully (i.e. the transaction branch is read-only and has been committed), the transaction manager operates to send a commit request to commit said at least one transaction branch, which is on hold, to the resource manager.