Celent awards BBVA Switzerland for its crypto solution

Celent, the leading technology research and advisory company for financial institutions, has awarded BBVA Switzerland at the Innovation & Insight Week 2022 for its wealth management model in the category of products and platforms, which enables the purchase and custody of cryptocurrencies for its private banking and New Gen clients.

Over the last decade, banking and payment systems have failed to keep pace with developments in the digital economy. Private banking clients of top-tier institutions have frequently struggled to use fintech channels for integrating the cryptocurrency procurement. DLT technology, smart contracts and digital assets seem promising vehicles for aligning the performance of banking and payment systems with that of the digital economy. Today, the division between e-commerce platforms and banking and payment systems is unsustainable. From this standpoint, BBVA has understood the need to bridge this gap with the past in order to offer its customers the opportunity to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without clearing and settlement delays.

The incorporation of digital assets into the banking offer of BBVA in Switzerland has not only been a major strategic milestone for the BBVA Group, positioning it as the first bank in the euro zone to provide trading services for cryptocurrencies, but also offers customers a smooth experience that allows investing and combining traditional and digital financial assets in the same portfolio.

This operation is possible thanks to the blockchain, a technology the bank has been working on for more than five years in very different areas, such as international payments, corporate finance and capital markets, and experimenting with cryptocurrencies since 2019.

Of course, this new proposal would not have been possible without the bank’s transparent and thorough collaboration with local regulatory banking institutions, as well as the collaboration with Metaco for the development and design of the bespoke software that turns it all into reality. 

From BBVA Switzerland we would like to extend our gratitude to Celent for this recognition. You can find the complete case study here.