Switzerland’s InCore Bank AG has become the first financial institution in the country to offer banking services to Kraken clients.
- Announced Thursday, the move means clients located in the European Union will be able to fund their accounts using Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) deposits – the payment integration project the EU designed to simplify euro bank transfers.
- The companies said the move comes at a time when institutions and traders are seeking alternative sources of capital value during an "uncertain macroeconomic climate."
- Rudy Suter, a strategy consultant for digital assets at InCore Bank, said the bank's new strategy is based on three pillars: cryptocurrencies, tokenization and blockchain applications.
- "As digital assets, cryptocurrencies are a valuable addition to modern asset management and will be indispensable as a payment and investment value in the future," said Mark Dambacher, InCore's CEO, in a statement.
- The companies plan to enable deposits in British pounds (GBP), Swiss francs (CHF) and Canadian dollars (CAD) in Q3 2020.
- According to a recent study by research firm Finery Tech, Kraken possesses the deepest bitcoin to euro liquidity in Europe as of June 2020.
- InCore Bank AG is the 209th-largest bank in Switzerland in terms of total assets under management.
- Kraken is rated the 10th-largest crypto exchange in the world by trade volume, according to data analytics website Nomics.
- Last month Kraken extended its services to Australia, enabling local clients to fund their accounts in Australian dollars (AUD).
See also: $103M Bailout Denied for Coronavirus-Hit Firms in Switzerland’s ‘Crypto Valley’