Banco Santander International, a subsidiary of Spanish bank Santander, is expanding its financial services by offering Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) (Ethereum cryptocurrency) trading and investing for clients with accounts in Switzerland .
Professional media learned from a spokesperson of the bank that these services are provided based on customer needs and strive to meet the specific needs and preferences of users with strong purchasing power. There are approximately 210,000 customers with approximately $315 million in assets and deposits.
This will be Santander’s first foray into the cryptocurrency space, which is being done in a controlled environment as it aims to expand its cryptocurrency offerings in the coming months. This suggests that the service will soon arrive in Spain and other places where the agency operates.
Santander’s BTC and ETH transactions were initiated under a regulated custody model, through which the bank stores private keys.
The move by the bank, which is more than 160 years old and has 166 million customers, first opened an account in Switzerland, considering that the current regulation of the Bitcoin ecosystem in the country is one of the most advanced in the world. “It provides our clients with a clear and comprehensive regulatory environment,” said John Whelan, head of cryptocurrencies and Crypto assets at Santander.
This new cryptocurrency service offered by the bank responds to the changes in its ecosystem position that the bank has emphasized this year. The UK Financial Conduct Authority restricted transactions from the entity to Bitcoin exchanges in 2022, following a request from the agency.
Everything seems to have changed this year. According to CriptoNoticias, last June Santander published an article highlighting the advantages of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network in processing “large numbers of instant micropayments.”
Now, with the announcement of these new services, Santander follows actions also taken by other financial entities in Europe. Among them, large German banks such as Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, and Deutsche Bank stand out.
Other European banks are taking similar steps, driven largely by demand from institutional clients and fears of being left behind as non-bank firms rush to offer new services.
The list includes companies such as CACEIS and Crédit Agricole, France’s second-largest bank. In July last year, Société Générale’s blockchain unit received the first license issued under new rules for the French cryptocurrency industry.
Information source: Compiled from CRYPTONOTICIAS by 0x Information. The copyright belongs to the author and may not be reproduced without permission.