Clients of the first commercial bank in Colombia, Banco de Bogotá, will test the possibilities of depositing and withdrawing money from the Buda.com cryptocurrency exchange as part of a pilot project of the country’s government.
Banco de Bogotá will test a new service next month that allows its clients to send and withdraw money from the Buda.com exchange, according to Alejandro Beltrán, regional manager for Chile’s Buda.com exchange in Colombia.
The experiment will take place as part of a government-sponsored pilot project to test banking services for cryptocurrency platforms. Beltran noted that although the launch of the service is scheduled for early August, both sides are still deciding the terms of the contract.
“Banco de Bogotá approached this process very carefully and carefully, which is understandable. The bank is entering a new world and wants to study it comprehensively, ”he said.
In January, Colombia’s financial regulator said nine cryptocurrency firms had been selected to test banking services for a year-long project.
The agreement between Buda.com and Banco de Bogotá will be the second pilot contract signed. In July, cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint began working with Colombian fintech company Movii in partnership with exchange Panda.
Banco de Bogotá will also partner with Mexican cryptocurrency exchange Bitso. Among the nine exchanges selected by the Colombian regulator are Binance, which will work with Colombian bank Davivienda and Fintech Powwi, and Gemini, which will partner with Bancolombia.
Prior to the launch of the pilot project, banks restricted money transfers to exchanges due to financial regulation. Although clients still conducted them, without indicating that these were transactions with cryptocurrency, Beltran added.
The Colombian government launched a regulatory sandbox for fintech companies in September last year and introduced a cryptocurrency regulation bill in October. Beltran said the pilot is not part of the regulatory sandbox and is not aimed at developing regulation for the industry.
Recently it became known that the government of Kazakhstan will launch a pilot project under which it will allow local financial institutions to open bank accounts for operations with cryptocurrencies.
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