The executives of two Australian banks ANZ and NAB said they do not plan to provide their retail clients with the opportunity to trade digital assets due to high risks of losing funds.
This was stated by the chief executive of the Australian and New Zealand banking group ANZ, Maile Carnegie, speaking at the Financial Review Banking Summit. When talking with clients, she came to the conclusion that the vast majority of them do not even understand the basic principles of financial literacy. Therefore, Carnegie considers it pointless to add cryptocurrency services for them, as this can harm the financial well-being of people.
Carnegie said ANZ was considering options for digital asset services as early as 2017. And now she is glad that the bank did not dive too deeply into cryptocurrencies. At the same time, in March, ANZ became the first bank in Australia to launch the A$DC stablecoin, pegged to the Australian dollar.
The summit was attended by Head of Digital Development at the National Bank of Australia (NAB) Angela Mentis. She also stated that in the near future the bank does not plan to provide its retail clients with the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies. However, NAB is using blockchain technology to expand its range of services to large organizations and companies.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is the only bank that has expressed willingness to launch a cryptocurrency retail product. Last week, the CBA suspended a pilot project to test cryptocurrency trading due to the fall in the crypto market and its volatility. However, CBA CEO Matt Comyn said that, despite the difficulties, the bank still intends to launch the service.
The head of the CBA expects regulators to clarify the regulation of the industry, and if the bank launches the project, it will open access to trading in crypto assets only to those clients who are aware of the risks associated with them. CBA unveiled plans to add crypto asset trading in November 2021 by partnering with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini to do so.
Source: Bits
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