Coinbase Opens A Bank Account With Barclays U.K

Coinbase, a digital currency exchange foundered back in 2012 is the first cryptocurrency exchange to have a partnership with Barclays. Barclays, a British multinational bank, and financial services company have offered Coinbase a bank account.

Opening a bank account with Barclays has been acknowledged as a great achievement by the exchange. The exchange has labeled the deal as the first partnership that consists of a major U.K bank, that is Barclays in this case and Coinbase a cryptocurrency exchange.

The Chief Executive Officer of Coinbase (U.K), who goes by the name Zeeshan Feroz made the following statements. He noted that: “Having domestic GBP payments with Barclay reduces the cost, improves the customer experience…and makes the transaction faster.” He added: “We believe that is an important step towards our commitment to making cryptocurrency accessible to everyone.”

The San Francisco based cryptocurrency exchange has its largest market in U.K, also the exchange states that its consumer base in the region is currently growing double the rate of other regions. This accomplishment took a whole lot of time due to Barclays demanding for good processing systems to fight against money laundering. After recent hacks and cases of money laundering pilling up, a lot of exchanges have been shut down due to that. Feroz also states that: “It’s a completely brand new industry. There’s a lot of understanding and risk management that’s needed.”

Last week Wednesday, Coinbase made public that it was entitled to an e-money license by the U.K Financial Conduct Authority. This new license enables Coinbase to operate with the Faster Payments Service (FPS), which is a U.K banking initiative to reduce payment times between different banks.

Coinbase intends on simplifying the process of fiat deposits and withdrawals for its clients in U.K. Feroz also suggests that the exchange will slowly initiate the new banking services to the traders in U.K.

He noted that U.K customers will benefit from faster, safer and seamless bank transfers.

“We will start with a pilot, giving a small number of institutional users access to Faster Payments.” He added: “In the coming weeks, we will begin rolling out to all U.K customers, making the Coinbase experience increasingly easier.”