Standard Chartered Bank To Provide Crypto To Aussie Institutional Investors

British-based multinational banking and financial services company Standard Chartered will launch a trading platform for institutional investors, with particular relevance to its Australian branch business and local banking in general.

SC Ventures is the innovation and ventures arm of Standard Chartered, which has 87,000 employees in more than 70 nations and US$789.050 billion in total assets. SC has partnered with Asian company BC Technology Group, owner of Hong Kong digital asset platform OSL, to establish a brokerage and exchange platform for clients in the UK and Europe, and ultimately Australia.

The joint venture is expected to be up and running in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals, and aims to deliver access to liquidity in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital assets.

Another Brick in the Digital Asset Wall

BC Group’s chief information officer Usman Ahmad, who will head up the new company, says that collaboration between market-leading firms is imperative to the continued development of robust global institutional digital asset infrastructure.

This joint venture will aid in maturing the digital asset ecosystem by combining OSL’s expertise in secure digital asset trading with SC Ventures’ capacity to develop future technology capabilities in banking and finance.

Usman Ahmad, SC/BC joint venture CEO

For the record, OSL subsidiary OSL Digital Securities made history in March when it executed Hong Kong’s first-ever licensed digital-asset trades.