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The heads of two Australian banks, ANZ and NAB, said they did not plan to provide their retail customers with the opportunity to trade digital assets due to the high risks of losing funds.
This was stated by the executive director of the Australian and New Zealand banking group ANZ Miley Carnegie (Maile Carnegie), speaking at the Financial Review Banking Summit. Communicating with clients, she came to the conclusion that the vast majority of them do not understand even the basic principles of financial literacy. Therefore, Carnegie considers it pointless to add cryptocurrency services for them, as this can harm the financial well-being of people.
Carnegie said anz considered options for providing services related to digital assets back in 2017. And now she is glad that the bank did not dive too deeply into cryptocurrencies. At the same time, in March, ANZ became the first bank in Australia to launch the A$DC stablecoin, pegged to the Australian dollar.
The summit was attended by angela Mentis, head of the digital development department of the National Bank of Australia (NAB). She also stated that in the near future, the bank does not plan to provide its retail customers with the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies. However, NAB is using blockchain technology to expand its range of services to large organizations and companies.
The only bank that expressed its willingness to launch a product for cryptocurrency retail was the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Last week, the CBA suspended a pilot project to test cryptocurrency trading due to the fall of the crypto market and its volatility. However, CBA CEO Matt Comyn said that despite the difficulties, the bank still intends to launch the service.
The head of the CBA expects that regulators will clarify the regulation of the industry, and if the bank launches the project, it will open access to trading crypto assets only to those customers who are aware of the risks associated with them. The CBA unveiled plans to add trading in crypto assets in November 2021, entering into a partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.
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