In an official blog post, the Vienna-based cryptocurrency brokerage platform Bitpanda confirmed that it had obtained a license to operate as a payment service provider in Austria.
Specifically, Bitpanda has been granted the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) license, a contract that provides oversight of the operation of service providers in both the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Union.
With this license, European financial and technology companies can launch new products and services for customers while adhering to clear rules for doing business within their common market. Bitpanda’s PSD2 was issued by the Austrian Financial Market Authority Financial Market Authority (FMA).
The announcement emphasizes that procuring the license can help break down barriers between the crypto-space and the world of traditional finance.
Philipp Bohrn, one of the two managing directors of Bitpanda Payments, was reportedly managing director of the Association of Financial Services Providers in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce for nine years before joining Bitpanda. His colleague Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad was previously head of the digitization and innovation department at the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen.
Enzersdorfer-Konrad said that the license will allow the crypto-currency fintech to offer more “convenient and innovative features and services” aimed at “being able to output digital assets wherever users wish”.
Jurisdictions around the world are adapting their existing regulatory systems as crypto, blockchain technologies and other fintech innovations are rapidly changing the payment landscape. In Singapore, the country’s central bank extended its payment service framework in November 2018 with certain crypto payment tokens.
Also published on Medium.