Last April Switzerland’s PostFinance partnered with crypto bank Sygnum to launch a retail crypto offering. That solution goes live tomorrow, making it an option for 2.5 million PostFinance customers. The bank is a subsidiary of SwissPost and the fifth largest bank in Switzerland by assets.
PostFinance is the first systemically important bank to offer crypto, according to Sygnum. The other Swiss systemic banks are UBS, Raiffeisen Group and Zürcher Kantonalbank.
Customers can invest as little as $50 and take advantage of crypto custody, trading and savings accounts in 11 cryptocurrencies. We’re guessing that PostFinance decided which tokens to include, given that Sygnum supports almost 30. Users can access the offering 24/7 via the PostFinance online account or app.
PostFinance is not your typical bank. With its link to SwissPost, it is not permitted by law to grant loans directly. While its website might appear to offer consumer loans and mortgages, it is actually a broker. Hence, it is primarily a deposit taking institution (CHF 95 billion in deposits in 2022) but partners with others to offer additional services ranging from retirement solutions to stock trading.
Its 2022 annual report explained the thinking behind its crypto offering. “Through PostFinance’s entry into crypto trading, we are addressing a need among our customers – namely the need for a trustworthy provider for the trading and safeguarding of cryptocurrencies. This is something that we at PostFinance can offer our customers.”
Meanwhile, Sygnum provides B2B crypto solutions for 14 other banks.
Such large scale retail rollouts of crypto solutions are still relatively rare. However, earlier this month Germany’s DZ Bank told Bloomberg that it was working on a retail crypto offering for the 737 German community banks it services.
