Banks are falling like dominoes – UnionBank of the Philippines, also more concisely named “Unionbank”, has announced that it will integrate the storage and trading of BTC and ETH into its offer. 9th bank in the country by assets under management, it thus logically follows the current trend of banks to offer cryptos to their customers around the world.
UnionBank Receives License from the Central Bank of the Philippines
Despite recent measures implemented by the Central Bank of the Philippines to prohibit crypto exchanges and companies from extending their services in the country, it finally grants the right to operate in the sector to a few Philippine financial institutions, including UnionBank.
The latter has been interested in cryptoassets for several years. Indeed, it launched its stablecoin PHX backed by the Philippine Peso in 2019. Subsequently, it entered into a partnership with Ark of Dreams, a local start-up in the field of Metavers. It now becomes the first bank in the country to be able to offer Bitcoin and Ether to its customers.
To offer its crypto services, UnionBank relies on the Harmonize platform developed by Metaco, a Swiss company specializing in the management of digital assets for companies and institutional players.
“UnionBank’s collaboration with its strategic partner Metaco has been critical in enabling it to achieve its goal of offering personalized services in crypto-asset storage and trading to Filipino customers. »
Henry Aguda, CTO and COO of UnionBank.
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An adoption that should continue in the country
UnionBank does intend to expand its services in the future. She wants to offer a secure, regulated interface, allowing millions of Filipinos to buy and sell cryptocurrencies legally.
As a reminder, the Philippines has a population of around 110 million. Felipe Medalla, Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines, has a mixed view of cryptocurrencies. He believes that the Central Bank must put in place the regulatory framework to prevent money laundering and use for criminal purposes. This explains the difficulty for crypto companies to establish themselves in this country.
The use of cryptoassets via Philippine banks and financial institutions, however, seems to suit the Central Bank of the Philippines. UnionBank will thus be able to add Bitcoin and Ether storage and trading to its services. A real local revolution, which we hope will help to develop the uses of decentralized currencies.
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