According to the bank’s CEO, the firm is introducing a cryptocurrency trading platform this year.
DBS Bank, headquartered in Singapore, intends to extend its cryptocurrency trading services beyond institutional customers.
DBS Bank, Singapore’s biggest bank, plans to extend its crypto trending service to retail clients by the end of the year, CEO Piyush Gupta said Monday during an earnings call.
“We are starting the process of expanding it outside our present investment base,” Gupta said. “There is a great deal of work to be done on appropriateness and anti-fraud… By the end of the year, we should have something.”
At the moment, the bank’s crypto trading service is available solely to institutional customers, who may place crypto orders via phone. According to Gupta, the goal is to create a 24/7 online digital asset exchange.
DBS Bank was one of the first institutions to get clearance from the Singapore Monetary Authority to provide cryptocurrency trading services in 2021. Following the passage of the Payment Services Act in 2019, over 170 cryptocurrency firms applied to the MAS for a Digital Payment Token License. However, over 100 of the candidates have either withdrawn their applications or been rejected by the agency since then.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was one of the firms that withdrew its licence application. In December, the business shut down its local exchange in Singapore after the Monetary Authority of Singapore alerted investors that it was operating without a licence and may have violated the Payment Services Act.
DBS Bank is legally permitted to provide crypto trading services to retail clients, but not to sell them since it already has the Digital Payment Token License. The MAS released rules in January to “discourage broad public cryptocurrency trading,” prohibiting providers from marketing crypto trading services via public advertising or through the use of third parties such as social media influencers.
DBS Bank’s plan to extend its crypto trading business to the retail sector is predictable considering the rise in demand for cryptocurrency services last year. According to Lionel Lim, CEO of DBS Digital Exchange, the exchange’s full-year cryptocurrency trading volume increased to $1.1 billion in 2021. That total includes $585.5 million in the fourth quarter alone.
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