After receiving approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to provide cryptocurrency bank accounts to corporate and institutional clients, the fully licensed Swiss financial institution Gazprombank (Switzerland) Ltd (“Gazprombank”) has successfully performed its first transactions in Bitcoin. The new cryptocurrency solution builds on Gazprombank’s long-standing relationship with Avaloq, a leader in digital banking solutions and METACO, a fast-growing provider of security-critical infrastructure enabling financial institutions to enter the digital asset ecosystem.
Roman Abdulin, CEO at Gazprombank, explains: “We are delighted to announce the successful launch of our bespoke cryptocurrency offering. Our solution allows us to make transactions with cryptocurrencies as easy as transactions with traditional assets. Digital assets will become increasingly important for our clients and the global economy. We are pleased to work together with leading Swiss-based entities on the further development of the Swiss and global crypto and blockchain ecosystem.”
To further strengthen its digital offering, Gazprombank has also become a member of the OpenVASP association, whose objective is to establish and maintain an open protocol for the transmission of transaction information between virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and other parties. As such, Gazprombank is spearheading the development of a uniform communication protocol to execute crypto payments between the members of the association. To this end, a bilateral agreement has been signed for the first time in Switzerland between a bank and a VASP: Bitcoin Suisse, the Swiss pioneer in crypto-financial services and a strong and trusted partner of Gazprombank.
Thomas Beck, Group Chief Technology Officer at Avaloq, says: “We are proud of the successful implementation of our integrated crypto asset solution and the further enhancement of our relationship with Gazprombank. Our new offering is a testament to our innovation journey in the blockchain space and our mission to place our customers at the forefront of the technological changes driving the financial services sector. The rollout of our crypto offering represents an important milestone in our journey to power the development of crypto and blockchain technology and provide investors, wealth managers, and financial institutions with more convenient, transparent, and simple solutions in order to accelerate their investment in crypto assets.”
Adrien Treccani, CEO and Founder of METACO, comments: “We are excited to see the successful implementation of our joint crypto asset management solution by Gazprombank. At METACO, we are constantly striving to innovate, expand, and improve upon our service offerings, and this milestone highlights both the strength of our institutional operating system for digital assets, SILO, as well as the significant demand among financial institutions for trusted infrastructure partners. This rollout is another step towards our vision of bringing crypto asset management technology to financial institutions across the globe.”