PostFinance, the fifth largest Swiss retail bank and the banking arm Switzerland’s post office, will allow its 2.69 million customers to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies beginning in 2024, according to a report from SwissInfo.
“Our clients want direct access to this market through their house bank,” says PostFinance head of retail banking Sandra Lienhart. “Given the growing institutionalization [of cryptocurrencies]] in the last 18 months, this is the ideal time to enter the market.”
In 2017, Swissquote became the first Swiss retail bank to offer trading services for bitcoin which led to an ample profit of over $104 million just last year, according to the report. This expertise led to PostFinance leaning on Swissquote in a partnership which saw the development of Yuh, PostFinance’s digital app which provided its clients access to cryptocurrencies and led to creation of. However, this announcement would seemingly place PostFinance in direct competition with Swissquote.
The decision of PostFinance to not only encourage the trading of bitcoin, but to also develop an independent platform to do so, comes amid a mass market correction which has seen bitcoin lose over 70% of its all-time-high value which almost reached $70,000. The Swiss postal banking arm will join the likes of other traditional institutions who have embraced bitcoin such as: Julius Baer, LGT Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Fidelity among many others.
The service will focus primarily on the trading and custody of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but the company is reportedly seeking additional external partners to continue building out product offerings.