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- Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will become Australia’s first bank to offer retail clients cryptocurrency services
- The bank will partner with crypto exchange Gemini Trust Company LLC to launch a pilot in the next few weeks
- By 2022, Commonwealth Bank will offer up to 10 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin
- Australia’s banks have faced criticism in recent months for refusing to do business with cryptocurrency providers
- Shares in Commonwealth Bank are up 0.69 per cent to $106.49 at 11:33 am AEDT
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will become Australia’s first bank to offer retail clients cryptocurrency services, marking a distinct shift in an industry that had previously refused to do business with crypto providers.
Starting with a pilot in the next few weeks, Commonwealth Bank will partner with New York-based crypto exchange Gemini Trust to offer trading in up to 10 cryptocurrencies through its banking app, which is used by around 6.4 million customers.
The move stands in contrast to the rest of the Big Four — NAB, Westpac and ANZ — which faced criticism in September for refusing to do business with cryptocurrency providers.
At the time, Westpac CEO Peter King said the anonymity of cryptocurrency made it “very hard” to meet the bank’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements.
NAB, meanwhile, said while it did not have any policies excluding crypto-focused customers, it does not currently service any of them and would only do so if it was profitable and the bank could tolerate the risks.
“The emergence and growing demand for digital currencies from customers creates both challenges and opportunities for the financial services sector, which has seen a significant number of new players and business models innovating in this area,” Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn said Wednesday.
“We believe we can play an important role in crypto to address what’s clearly a growing customer need and provide capability, security and confidence in a crypto trading platform.”
According to its own research, the bank has found many of its customers want to access cryptocurrencies as an investment class and are already buying, selling and holding the digital assets through a variety of crypto exchanges.
By 2022, Commonwealth Bank will offer up to 10 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, and will work with US blockchain platform Chainalysis to help its compliance team monitor and mitigate the threat of cybercrimes.
“Customers have expressed concern regarding some of the crypto services in market today, including the friction of using third party exchanges, the risk of fraud, and the lack of trust in some new providers,” Mr Comyn added.
“This is why we see this as an opportunity to bring a trusted and secure experience for our customers.”
Shares in Commonwealth Bank are up 0.69 per cent to $106.49 at 11:33 am AEDT.
