The largest Swiss investment bank, Vontobel, has introduced a crypto-custody solution for banks and asset managers.
Multi-billion bank offers crypto service
With assets of CHF 110.3 billion (USD 112.2 billion) under its actively enhanced asset management tool, Zurich-based Vontobel Bank is reportedly the third largest financial services provider in Switzerland, according to the 2017 Financial Report.
The private bank claims to be the first bank in the world to meet the standards required by regulators and financial intermediaries with the launch of the new Digital Asset Vault Custodian solution.
With the new tool, banks and asset managers can offer their clients a wide range of cryptocurrency services, including the purchase, transfer and storage of digital assets.
According to the announcement, Vontobel’s Digital Asset Vault operates as in the traditional asset classes according to the rules of the banking infrastructure, giving clients an alternative to their previous personal registrations and a consolidated overview of traditional and digital investments.
To protect users’ digital assets, Vontobel combines Hardware Security Module (HSM) technology with its own infrastructure, the statement said.
Swiss bank establishes itself as a crypto bank
Vontobel has already established itself as a crypto bank and acts as a lender to offer its customers investments in cryptocurrencies. In 2017, local sources reported that Vontobel’s Bitcoin (BTC) certificate was the best-selling product on Europe’s largest stock exchange, the SIX Swiss Exchange.
Swiss Financial Regulation, the Financial Markets Authority, issued guidelines for its FinTech license at the end of 2018, with the companies involved in crypto and blockchain appearing to begin applying for the license from 2019 onwards.