PostFinance Ltd., one of Switzerland’s largest financial institutions and a retail bank owned by the Swiss government, has partnered with digital asset services provider Sygnum Bank AG to allow its 2.5 million customers to access the cryptocurrency market, Sygnum announced on Wednesday.
See related article: Swiss crypto bank SEBA Bank expands to Hong Kong
Fast facts
- Through the partnership with Sygnum Bank, PostFinance’s over 2.5 million customers will be able to buy, store and sell leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Additionally, the bank will introduce revenue-generating services like staking.
- “Digital assets have become an integral part of the financial world, and our customers want access to this market at PostFinance,” said Philipp Merkt, chief investment officer of PostFinance.
- Sygnum Bank is a digital asset services provider founded in Switzerland, which claims to be the world’s first digital asset bank. The company received its Swiss banking and securities dealer license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in 2019 and was granted a license for asset management by the Monetary Authority of Singapore later in the same year.
- PostFinance, founded in 1906 as the financial services unit of Swiss Post, is fully owned by the Swiss government and was awarded a bank license by FINMA in 2013.
- According to a report by local media Swissinfo, PostFinance announced plans to expand its cryptocurrency exposure in July 2022. Meanwhile, Swiss Post, the parent company of PostFinance, launched its first crypto stamp, or non-fungible token, in November 2021. In 2017, competitor Swissquote became the first Swiss bank to offer cryptocurrency trading services to retail customers.
- While Switzerland and other economies like South Korea and Hong Kong continue to embrace the cryptocurrency market, crypto firms in the U.S. face increasing enforcement actions and regulatory uncertainty.
- In a recent interview with Forkast, Ripple Labs President Monica Long called for the U.S. to embrace innovation and make it work within its regulatory systems to protect consumers and allow innovation to thrive.
See related article: What the US can learn from the Philippines to regulate crypto in a smarter way