According to CoinDesk: Santander Private Banking International, a division of the Spanish financial service giant Banco Santander, is now offering trading and investment options in bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) to its high-net-worth clients with accounts in Switzerland. As per an internal announcement observed by CoinDesk, Santander plans to expand the offering to include other cryptocurrencies that pass the bank's screening criteria in the coming months.
The service, provided upon client request through relationship managers, involves assets being held in a regulated custody model, where the bank manages the private cryptographic keys in a secure milieu. This move is a definitive departure from the norm as most prominent banks shy away from unrestricted blockchains and their associated cryptocurrencies, preferring to experiment with tokenization.
Banco Santander has been in operations for over 160 years and possesses approximately 166 million customers. Their private bank handles 210,000 affluent clients, with assets and deposits totaling around $315 billion. John Whelan, head of crypto and digital assets at Santander, expressed that the Swiss regulations governing digital assets are among the most advanced, providing clarity and a conducive regulatory environment for their clients. As the trending growth of crypto as an alternative asset continues, he expects clients to prefer relying on their established financial institutions for asset management.
