Another Swiss private bank has announced in a statement that it’s open to on-board cryptocurrencies. Maerki Baumann private bank in Zurich is open to accepting assets that were generated with cryptocurrencies, “under the condition that strict regulatory and legal requirements are fully complied with,” Managing Director Stephan Zwahlen told news.Bitcoin.com.
Also read: Many Swiss Bankers and Financial Regulators Quit to Join the Crypto Space
“Switzerland Knows How to Protect Assets”
Assets raised from cryptocurrency transactions are usually rejected by most Swiss banks, but there are a few exceptions. Maerki Baumann has reportedly followed Falcon and officially accepted handling such assets, but it does not offer asset management solutions in cryptocurrencies nor accounts in crypto, the Managing Director of the bank told news.Bitcoin.com. Funds raised from speculative crypto transactions, payments for services rendered, or from mining successes are increasingly growing, together with the popularity of cryptocurrencies. But these assets reportedly often meet rejection from Swiss banks.
Vontobel, another Swiss private bank, together with Falcon, stands among the lenders that are agreeing to handle cryptocurrency-based investments on behalf of their clients.
The Swiss Contradiction
One of the contradictions about Switzerland which is aiming to become a “crypto nation” is that despite having hundreds of the most famous crypto companies worldwide based in Zug, hardly any of them have a Swiss bank account. The main reasons for that is the fear of black money that has tainted some of the major Swiss banks throughout history, Marc Bernegger, a Swiss Fintech and crypto entrepreneur, told news.Bitcoin.com in an interview in Zurich.
Bernegger has been a fintech entrepreneur for close to 20 years, and said he read Satoshi’s whitepaper in 2012. He then immediately felt that Bitcoin had a lot of potential. “I understood from day
