Singapore’s DBS Private Bank has announced the launch of Asia’s first bank-backed trust offering for cryptocurrencies.
The service, operated via the lender’s wholly-owned licensed trust subsidiary, DBS Trustee, allows clients to invest, custodize and manage their digital assets.
The service will handle only those cryptocurrencies hosted on the DBS Digital Exchange — Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and XRP — enabling clients able to work with DBS Private Bank to integrate the cryptos into their wealth succession plans.
The bank said critical information about its clients’ digital assets, such as access instructions, passwords and information on their digital wallets, online exchanges and wallet backups, would be kept confidential after their deaths, because trusts are kept out of the probate process, sparing beneficiaries from having to deal with potential complexities.
In late April, DBS reported that its digital assets under custody had jumped to more than S$80 million (US$60 million), with its investor base growing to nearly 120.
In India, by contrast, cryptocurrency investors are not so well provided for by banks, which are blocking crypto trades, despite a Supreme Court ruling that overturned the central bank’s efforts to ban cryptocurrency trading.
