New Products
Falcon Private Bank Enters Crypto-Currency Fray
Clients of the Swiss private bank can now hold the controversial crypto-currency in their portfolios.
Clients of Swiss private bank Falcon can now exchange and
hold bitcoin. They can also withdraw holdings of the
crypto-currency in cash from a designated ATM in the bank's
Zurich headquarters.
FINMA, the Swiss
regulator, approved Falcon's collaboration with Bitcoin Suisse
for bitcoin asset management services. This enables Falcon
clients to exchange and hold the controversial crypto-currency
using cash holdings.
The trading platform is underpinned by blockchain
technology.
“We are proud to be the first-mover in the Swiss private banking
area to provide blockchain asset management for our clients,”
Arthur Vayloyan, global head of products and services, said.
“Falcon is convinced that the time is right to enter this nascent
market and it is our firm belief that this new product will
fulfil our clients' future needs."
The initiative will be a welcome dose of positive news at Falcon.
Last year, Falcon Private Bank was ordered by authorities to
leave Singapore amid the Malaysia-linked money laundering
scandal. There have been changes to directors. (For
more details see here.)
In recent months, bitcoin has seen gains unparalleled by any
other crypto-currencies such as Ether and Litecoin.
The price of a single bitcoin surged to break the $3,000 mark in
June. To put this in context, the price of one bitcoin seven
years ago hovered around $0.07.
But bitcoin continues to face infrastructure issues, which would
likely deter more traditional investors from pouring cash into an
instrument that tracks the movement of it.
Last year, the price of bitcoin plummeted after hackers stole
around $65 million worth of the digital currency from Hong
Kong-based exchange platform Bitfinex. The theft revived concerns
about the security of bitcoin.
The US' most prominent financial regulator, the Securities and
Exchange Commission, in March rejected
an application to list what would have been the first
exchange-traded fund designed to track bitcoin.
