Forbes
650 U.S. banks will soon be able to offer bitcoin purchases to an estimated 24 million total customers. As part of the deal, between enterprise payments giant NCR and digital asset management firm NYDIG, community banks including North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank and credit unions including Bay Federal Credit Union in California will be able to offer their clients cryptocurrency trading through mobile applications built by the payments provider.
Instead of having to deal with the burdensome regulatory requirements related to actually holding the cryptocurrency for their customers, the financial institutions that opt to make the service available will rely on NYDIG’s custody services.
The effort is the latest by Atlanta-based NCR, to capitalize on demand it’s seeing from banks and credit unions tired of seeing crypto-purchases made from their accounts to outside exchanges. By providing these clients a way to buy bitcoin—and eventually spend it—within their existing accounts, the move puts these institutions in direct competition with cryptocurrency exchanges.
“We’re firm believers in the benefits of crypto and the strategic application,” says NCR president of digital banking, Douglas Brown. “And that’s true for our banking relationships, as evidenced by NYDIG, and across retailers as well as restaurants and the like.”
