The details regarding what services will be offered is a bit vague and in theory could be as simple as linking to the crypto account of the individual to report the balance. That said, it is more likely they are shooting higher and intend to support the ability to buy, hold, and sell crypto. This is huge business for those few regulated exchanges that know how to manage crypto accounts as is done in core systems. Of course, every core system provider is building out support for crypto, so that’s an easier road to follow. The article discusses NFTs as if they are just another cryptocurrency, but regulated entities need to be extremely cautious regarding NFTs (see here and here):
“According to the survey readout, blockchain and cryptocurrencies were major points of focus within investing circles and received a significant amount of media attention in 2021. Rightly so when you consider the hundreds of millions of dollars that flooded into the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors last year.
Given those massive inflows, banks cannot afford to ignore cryptocurrencies nor their client requests to offer crypto services. Here are the key findings from the survey:
• 44% of banking execs expect to offer some form of crypto support to clients by the end of this year.
• That is more than twice the number who offered those services in 2021.
• 60% of surveyed wealth management advisors expect that their clients will increase crypto holdings or start investing in those digital assets in 2022.
• A third of wealth managers expect to actively manage their client’s crypto portfolio, up from 13% who currently provide that service.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group
