Banco Bilbao (BBVA) to Offer Cryptocurrency Services to Spanish Retail Customers

Zhitong Finance APP learned that Spain's Banco Bilbao (BBVA.US) has obtained Spanish regulatory approval to provide comprehensive services at the level of crypto asset custody and transaction execution in the Spanish market. The second largest commercial bank in Spain issued a statement on Monday local time saying that it has obtained formal approval from the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the financial market supervisory agency, and is currently preparing to "launch related services to retail customers, initially supporting Bitcoin and Ethereum." A CNMV spokesperson confirmed the approval.

Banco Bilbao said it would first provide the service to "a small number of users" and expand it to all of the bank's private clients "in the coming months." The Bilbao-based bank has already carried out similar cryptocurrency asset management business in Switzerland and Turkey.

The Spanish-based Banco Bilbao, whose full name is Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, emphasized in a statement that it will use its own crypto key custody platform and will not rely on third-party institutions.

Last month, Banco Bilbao said it was strengthening its corporate and investment banking division by integrating technology businesses from other parts of the bank. According to an internal memo from Banco Bilbao at the time, Spain's second-largest lender plans to integrate BBVA Spark, which focuses on high-growth technology companies, and its digital assets and blockchain strategy divisions into its corporate and investment banking divisions.

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