Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), the country's second-largest bank in terms of assets under management ($840 billion) and one of the largest financial institutions in the world, might launch a cryptocurrency exchange and custody service, iHodl Russia reports.
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Initially, BBVA will offer the new services in Switzerland in accordance with the requirements of the Financial Market Supervision Authority (FINMA). While the service is expected to be pan-European, BBVA intends to register it in FINMA's jurisdiction.
Several sources familiar with the matter say there are still some legal compliance issues, so the bank will not launch crypto-related services in 2020. The sources add that the service is designed to work with cryptocurrencies, not tokenized securities.
iHodl reported in October 2020 that Russia's third largest bank by assets, Gazprombank, received a license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to provide cryptocurrency bank accounts to corporate and institutional clients. With the license, Gazprombank can offer custody services for cryptocurrencies as well as trading between crypto and fiat.
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