Australian online bank Neobank Volt revealed that it has partnered with crypto exchange BTC Markets (BTCM) to provide bank services for Australian crypto investors.
According to Reuters, this cooperation will provide BTCM with approximately 325,000 Australian customers with corporate cash management accounts with real-time notification and automatic payment functions.
Volt bank added that each Volt account of all associated BTCM would be secured under the financial claims plan worth up to 250,000 Australian dollars, approximately $185,900.
Volt bank is Australia’s first to be issued a restricted ADI (Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions) license by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to obtain the unrestricted ADI license “neo-banks”- a new type of digital bank.
The new banking model—relying on the Internet to launch digital online services—has attracted attention.
The CEO of volt Steve Weston said that:
“The crypto community hasn’t been happy with the games being played by banks and making life more difficult. Crypto is a less contested area of banking but an increasingly important one.”
Due to the intensified review of companies with banking licenses by the Australian banking regulator, the transaction took 18 months for both parties to meet the requirements of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
With the increasing concerns about financial crimes such as money laundering, traditional banks in Australia are reluctant to provide services to cryptocurrency-related companies.
However, Caroline Bowler, the CEO of crypto exchange BTC Markets, which owns a client base of 325,000 with trading assets under $17.1 billion, believes that the relationship between cryptocurrency companies and traditional financial institutions has changed and said that “our experience probably mirrors a lot that’s already in the public domain about dealing with financial institutions in Australia.”
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