Source: AdobeStock / Juri
Digital asset management technology METACO announced that the Union Bank of the Philippines is now live on its flagship platform Harmonizeto launch a pilot program of crypto custody and trading services for select retail clients.
The pilot includes Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
According to a press release, UnionBank’s launch of this pilot program is “a major step forward in the bank’s exploration of blockchain technology,” following its previous digital asset initiatives, including the launch of its stablecoin for remittance payments and entry into the metaverse economy.
Henry Aguda, Chief Technology & Operations Officer and Chief Transformation Officer at UnionBank, was quoted as saying:
“We are proud to continue UnionBank’s line of industry firsts and this time to be the first regulated bank in the country to offer customers a digital currency exchange capability.”
UnionBank uses the Harmonize digital asset custody platform as its “fundamental orchestration platform” and “a fully managed service deployed in the cloud,” managing governance and operations for the pilot, the company said, while the bank said prepared for “broader rollouts” of its digital asset services.
Seamus Donoghue, Chief Growth Officer at METACO said:
Harmonize “provides UnionBank with the opportunity to securely explore a range of retail and institutional digital asset use cases, from crypto custody to investing and trading to the fast-growing Metaverse economy in the Philippines.”
Regarding its plans to expand the service, the press release noted that the bank is working “closely” with financial regulators and industry participants. The aim is,
“For millions of Filipinos to store and exchange digital currencies like bitcoin directly from their existing mobile banking app without having to open or manage separate wallet services.”
UnionBank is one of the largest universal banks in the Philippines and is regulated by the Central Bank of the Philippines (E.G).
The press release added that the new technologies will be used to expand financial inclusion in the country and said that
“President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., announced the importance of blockchain and digital asset technologies at the recent opening of UnionBank’s Innovation Campus, outlining the power of the technology in advancing financial inclusion in the Philippines. “
Founded in Switzerland in 2015, METACO is a technology provider to financial institutions and companies in the digital asset ecosystem with banking implementations in various regulatory authorities including Switzerland, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Turkey, Singapore, and Australia other Hong Kong, the company said.
Banks enter the digital economy
Banks are increasingly working with crypto industry companies and regulators on various pilot projects related to digital asset services.
On Thursday the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the first live trades to be completed as part of the first industrial pilot as part of Project Guardian, which is exploring potential applications for decentralized finance (DeFi) in wholesale funding markets.
It says that as part of the first industrial pilot DBS bank, JP Morganand SBI Digital Asset Holdings executed FX and government bond transactions against liquidity pools that included tokenized Singapore government bonds, Japanese government bonds, Japanese yen (JPY) and Singapore dollars (SGD).
The press release said,
“A live cross-currency transaction using tokenized JPY and SGD deposits was successfully completed. In addition, a simulated exercise was conducted involving the buying and selling of tokenized government bonds.”
Additionally, additional pilots have been launched to test the application of asset tokenization and DeFi across a broader range of use cases in the financial sector, she added.
____
Learn more:
– World’s largest custodian BNY Mellon launches crypto custody service
– DBS adopts DeFi protocols for forex and government securities transactions
– US Sullivan Bank partners with Bakkt to enable BTC
– South Korea’s SK Securities teams up with Regional Bank for Crypto Custody, NFT Move
Learn Crypto Trading, Yield Farms, Income strategies and more at CrytoAnswers
https://nov.link/cryptoanswers
Comments are closed.