The British banking giant will partner with Hong Kong-based BC Group for the project, which is targeting UK and European institutional investors
Standard Chartered and BC Technology Group plan to launch a digital asset brokerage and exchange platform aimed at institutional investors in the UK and Europe.
In particular, the project involves SC Ventures, the technology arm of Standard Chartered, and OSL, a Hong Kong-based regulated crypto exchange managed by BC Group. The project aims to provide institutional and corporate clients with a “safe and reliable investment infrastructure,” said Alex Manson of SC Venture.
“ We strongly believe that digital assets are on the rise and are being adopted by the institutional market as a highly relevant asset class“he added in a press statement.
According to the two companies, the new platform is expected to go into operation in the 4th quarter of 2021, when the regulators give the all-clear. Customers have access to Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as other major digital assets.
By the way, the partnership with BC Group for crypto assets follows the launch last December of Zodia Custody, a product that the bank said would provide secure and compliant custody of digital assets for its institutional clients.
The team leading the new project will be led by Usman Ahmad, BC Group’s CIO, and Nick Philpott, a former executive director at Standard Chartered. Ahmad will take the position of CEO, while Philpott will act as COO of the new UK – based brokerage and exchange platform.
Standard Chartered’s plans for a brokerage and exchange platform come just days after banking and financial services giant HSBC said it had no such plans. The bank’s CEO, Noel Quinn, told Reuters last week that HSBC would not provide its clients with access to digital assets, nor would it try to open a trading desk because volatility was too high.
Bitcoin, which crashed to an all-time high of $64,863 after rallying, is about to break back towards $40,000. After hitting a low of $30,000, the BTC price rose back to around $38,000 at the time of writing this article (an increase of almost 6% in the last 24 hours).
