Vontobel to Launch Digital Asset Vault
One of the most important private banks in Switzerland, Vontobel has announced that it will be launching a new service—Digital Asset Vault. This is a crypto assets custody service that will combine the worlds of traditional finance and cryptocurrencies and treat them similar to traditional physical goods.
According to a recent report, the Head of Vontobel Investment Banking, Roger Studer was excited about the new service and tagged it a “logical evolution” when compared to traditional final solutions.
Studer said that:
“Digital Asset Vault is a logical evolution that extends our digital assets offering. With our innovative strength and experience, we have closed the existing gap between existing and digital assets. By incorporating our digital assets into our own banking infrastructure, we are also the first provider to meet the demanding requirements of financial intermediaries and their regulators”.
In its bid to give it’s users the highest security possible, Vontobel has included a Hardware Security Module (HSM) into its infrastructure which gives its clients a high- tech encryption option which is in accordance to the legal structure in play in the country.
The bank has also given an assurance that once the HSM is activated, the holding of private keys will be eliminated. This is because private keys are only protected if the interface of the hardware module generated them. As a result, there is no guarantee of security for imported private keys.
Vontobel is Not Alone
In the last four months, Vontobel is the third financial institution to offer a digital asset custody service. Other institutions including Canada’s Versa Bank and America’s Fidelity has shown interest.
Based on a recent report, Switzerland is currently designing a crypto-friendly legal structure which aims to “Amend the Financial Market Infrastructure law and the Financial Institutions Act” to “create more flexibility” for blockchain/ DLT applications amongst other things.
