BNY Mellon Hitches to Cryptocurrency Bandwagon
Posted on 02/12/2021
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BNY Mellon) said it will begin financing bitcoin and other digital currencies.
“BNY Mellon is proud to be the first global bank to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets,” Roman Regelman, CEO of asset servicing and head of digital at BNY Mellon, said in a February 11, 2021 press release.
“Growing client demand for digital assets, maturity of advanced solutions, and improving regulatory clarity present a tremendous opportunity for us to extend our current service offerings to this emerging field,” he said.
BNY Mellon will eventually permit digital currencies to pass through the same financial network it currently uses for more traditional holdings like U.S. Treasury bonds and equities. Shares of BNY Mellon rose 2% in premarket trading following the news on February 11, 2020.
In late 2019, Boston-based State Street Corporation started to partner with cryptocurrency exchange and custodian Gemini Trust on a new pilot that examines reporting scenarios for digital assets. In late 2020, SC Ventures, the innovation and ventures unit of Standard Chartered, and Northern Trust, a provider of asset servicing, entered into an agreement to launch Zodia Custody, an institutional-grade custody solution for cryptocurrencies.
