PostFinance, First Swiss Bank Offers Complete Crypto Service
JAKARTA - Swiss Bank PostFinance is the first bank in a country in Switzerland to offer full crypto services to its 2.5 million customers. This service includes crypto storage, trading and savings for eleven selected crypto assets. This service was officially launched on February 21, 2024.
PostFinance wants to make it easier for its customers to invest in crypto in a simple, transparent and affordable way. Customers can start their investment with a minimum capital of US$50 (Rp.782,750) and securely store their crypto assets in digital wallets provided by banks.
In addition, customers can also create crypto savings plans similar to traditional fund savings schemes, which allow them to save regularly and follow the development of the crypto market.
The PostFinance crypto service is the result of a collaboration with crypto company Synum, which has been started since April 2023. PostFinance is the first systematically important bank to provide crypto services in Switzerland, a country known as one of the global financial hubs.
This step demonstrates PostFinance's commitment to integrating crypto into traditional banking systems and providing alternative investment options to its customers.
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Philipp Merkt, Chief Investment Officer at PostFinance, said that crypto is an attractive and potentially large investment opportunity in the future.
The advantage is that our 2.5 million customers can now easily and safely invest in crypto in their banks. Apart from traditional asset classes in the form of cash, bonds, and stocks, crypto is an attractive investment opportunity in alternative investments such as property and commodities," he said.
PostFinance offers regular and regulatory services in Switzerland. PostFinance is different from conventional banks because of its affiliation with SwissPost, which prohibits it directly from providing legal loans.
Therefore, PostFinance operates primarily as a broker and focuses on deposit collection activities. With a large deposit base of 95 billion CHF (around IDR 1,481 trillion) in 2022, PostFinance is also working with external partners to provide additional services, ranging from pension solutions to stock trading.
Dr. Alexander Thoma, Head of Digital Assets at PostFinance, said that blockchain technology is a megatren that will continue to develop in the future and PostFinance customers want to participate in this technology.
"The need to buy cryptocurrencies and not have to go through crypto exchanges that are less regular is therefore present among most of our customers. With our offer, we allow you to do that and more than that," he said.
PostFinance offers eleven crypto assets that its customers can choose from, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI), Aave (AAVE), Compound (COMP), and Synthetix (SNX).
These crypto assets were selected based on criteria such as liquidity, market capitalization, reputation, and performance. PostFinance also plans to add other crypto assets in the future according to market demand and development.