Liechtenstein-based Bank Frick is now giving its clients the ability to buy Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum, while also promising to secure their cryptocurrency purchases from cyber attacks with backed-up cold-storage wallets.
You Don’t Have to ‘Be Your Own Bank’
While many of Europe’s larger banks have taken a negative stance towards digital currencies, Bank Frick – a small independent family-run bank in Liechtenstein – is opening its doors to clients looking to invest in the young cryptocurrency market. Explained Chief Client Officer Hubert Büchel:
Our services are in high demand from companies across Europe. The companies know that we reliably support them in implementing their cryptocurrency and blockchain business models in accordance with existing European regulations. Our goal is to bring crypto banking at least to the level of quality of classic banking.
According to ZeroHedge, Bank Frick is also protecting clients’ cryptocurrencies with cold storage wallets – widely considered to be the safest option for protecting cryptocurrency investments long-term, thanks to their offline nature. Additionally, backup copies of clients’ wallets will be stored in a “geo-redundant and secure manner.”
Bank Frick’s new offering is set to open cryptocurrency’s doors to a whole new base of clients. Explains Büchel:
With our new offering, financial intermediaries such as asset managers and trustees can successfully differentiate themselves in the market and offer their customers added value. Intermediaries and their clients can easily get to know a new, exciting universe with these direct purchases, diversifying them and investing them without correlation to other asset classes. Investments in cryptocurrencies are highly speculative, which is why only a small amount of admixture in the portfolio is advisable.
Playing by the Rules, Ahead of the Curve
Bank Frick is not only looking to protect their clients’ investments, but also their own operations.
The bank is regulated according to both Liechtenstein and EU/EEA law and will safeguard itself from money laundering or other criminal activity by thoroughly ensuring funding sources are legitimate.
Bank Frick has long been taking a crypto-friendly focus, effectively putting themselves ahead of the curve when compared to Europe’s big banks. Chief Executive Edi Wögerer previously stated:
There are risks involved but there are also really big opportunities. We know what to do from a security perspective so this is a big opportunity for banks like us.
Wögerer also previously claimed that larger banks were “scared” of crypto and that “because they don’t understand them, they feel threatened.”
Would you be interested in directly investing in cryptocurrency with a family-owned bank offering cold-storage wallets? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, BankFrick.li
