On September 19, Arab Bank Switzerland announced that they would be offering clients a range of services, including acting as a trading and brokerage service for BTC and Ethereum (ETH). This move comes as the Swiss branch of one of the top financial institutions in the Middle East is looking to offer services that will reach a younger, wealthy client base.
The bank released a statement which explained that the growing demand by “existing and younger clients who seek to include digital assets as one asset class in their diversified portfolios.”
To accomplish this goal, the bank will partner with blockchain technology firm Taurus. This will enable it to offer its wealthy clients a full-service operation for all types of digital assets. Taurus is not only providing the platform, but they are taking an active role in creating operational policies and procedures related to the services that will be offered.
In a statement, Arab Bank Switzerland CEO Serge Robin explained, “We firmly believe that blockchain will disrupt the financial industry as we know it and we intend to be amongst the first banks to offer digital asset services to our clients in a secure and regulated environment.”
Many banks have been leery of offering crypto asset-related services, especially in light of the fact that there are a growing number of regulations that are coming into effect around the world. However, there are those that are embracing the digital currencies and are finding that blockchain technology is the means to secure transactions and accounts.
Some countries are pushing hard for the implementation of this type of technology. Switzerland is one of those. The Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) recently released new guidelines and regulations regarding blockchain-based payments. These new regulations were geared toward cryptocurrency exchanges, e-wallet providers and trading platforms.
It appears that these new guidelines will also affect the operations for Arab Bank. That is good news for those looking to trade digital currencies in the Middle East, as the services the bank provides should be some of the most secure in the world.
It is also wondered if this could be a prelude to the Arab Bank soon offering their own digital currency. In June, another Swiss Bank, Dukascopy, announced that they were offering the Dukascoin. This could be the perfect market for the Swiss Bank to offer its own form of digital currency in this region.
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