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Raiffeisenlandesbank to launch Bitcoin trading in early 2024

November 24, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Austria

Raiffeisen Bank’s RLB NÖ-Wien is preparing to introduce cryptocurrency trading services to its retail clients in early 2024.

The Austrian subsidiary of European lender Raiffeisen Bank is preparing to allow its clients to trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) in the coming months.

After initially announcing its crypto plans in April 2023, Raiffeisen Bank’s Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) is moving forward with a crypto rollout in collaboration with the Austrian crypto firm Bitpanda.

RLB NÖ-Wien expects to start rolling out crypto trading services in Vienna in the first quarter of 2024, a spokesperson for the bank told Cointelegraph.

“Raiffeisenlandesbank NÖ-Wien has signed a cooperation agreement with Bitpanda. Via this cooperation, we plan to offer an attractive digital investment platform early in 2024,” the representative stated, adding:

“We have seen the demand from customers for easy, intuitive, digital investment platforms. Our main intention to take customer-centric decisions has triggered these efforts, which we are excited about bringing to market.”

With the crypto rollout, RLB NÖ-Wien users will gain access to all cryptocurrencies provided by the bank’s partner Bitpanda, the spokesperson said.

Bitpanda Deputy CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad previously told Cointelegraph that Raiffeisen’s crypto offering would support the full range of Bitpanda’s digital asset offerings, which feature more than 2,500 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether (ETH). The exec also said Raiffeisen was willing to make the crypto trading service available to all customer segments, including retail, private banking and corporate customers.

“As we announced in April, the end goal is to make our offer available to all RLB NÖ-Wien customers. However, the rollout will begin with their customers in Vienna,” a spokesperson for Bitpanda noted.

Raiffeisen’s move into crypto is another sign of Bitcoin’s growing adoption, with companies like Ferrari starting to accept cryptocurrency as payment in October 2023. Raiffeisen Bank is one of the oldest banks in Europe, with the first Raiffeisen bank launching in Austria’s Mühldorf in 1886. As of 30 June 2023, the Raiffeisen Group had 247 billion Swiss francs ($280 billion) in assets under management and 219 billion CHF ($248 billion) in client loans.

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Bitpanda crypto exchange gets license in Norway amid European expansion bid

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Bitpanda

Bitpanda already holds a license in Austria, Germany, France, Czechia and Sweden.

One of the largest European crypto exchanges, Vienna-based Bitpanda has become one of the first foreign entities to receive a virtual assert service provider license in Norway. The announcement came on the company’s official X (former Twitter) account on Oct. 19.

Bitpanda holds a license in a number of European jurisdictions, such as Austria, Germany, France, Czechia and Sweden. According to the deputy CEO of Bitpanda, Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, the registration marks another step in the company’s expansion in Europe:

“It is obvious that we in Europe need an investment platform that we can trust. At Bitpanda, we have set out to be that platform. Over the last 12 months, we have been the only European provider to receive licenses in Germany, Sweden and Norway. We now have more than 4 million users and enable Europe’s leading financial institutions and neobanks to offer digital assets.”

In May 2023, Norway, which remains outside the European Union, signaled that it could go its own way on crypto asset regulation. In its annual report, the central bank of the country stated that the upcoming pan-EU Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation “may not be adequate to all crypto regulatory needs.”

Meanwhile, some major crypto exchanges continue to struggle with European regulators. In September, New York-headquartered Gemini decided to quit the Netherlands, citing the inability to meet regulators’ requirements. The problems don’t end within the European Union’s jurisdiction. The United Kingdom’s financial markets regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, recently added 143 new entities to the warning list of non-registered asset providers.

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Bitcoin at banks: Raiffeisenlandesbank to offer crypto investment services

April 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Banks

All segments of RLB NÖ-Wien clients will be able to invest in a broad number of cryptocurrencies with a budget of as little as one euro.

Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien), an Austrian cooperative banking company founded in 1900, is preparing to launch crypto investment services in collaboration with the Austrian crypto firm Bitpanda.

According to a joint announcement on April 26, RLB NÖ-Wien plans to provide its customers with a broad range of cryptocurrencies through Bitpanda’s Software as a service (SaaS) offering. Crypto investment will be featured alongside investment services for stocks, exchange-traded funds, precious metals and commodities.

“The deal with Bitpanda aims to expand our product range with an innovative, secure facet and enable all customers to easily accumulate wealth,” RLB NÖ-Wien CEO Michael Höllerer said.

A part of the major Austrian banking group, Raiffeisen Bank International, is moving into cryptocurrency investment with a new planned offering.

*Bitpanda co-founder and CEO Eric Demuth (left) and RLB NÖ-Wien CEO Michael Höllerer (right). Source: Bitpanda*

The new offer aims to allow RLB NÖ-Wien customers to invest in various assets regardless of the amount of available capital, enabling investments from as little as one euro.

Bitpanda Deputy CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad told Cointelegraph that RLB NÖ-Wien wants to make the new trading option available to all customer segments, including retail, private banking and corporate customers of RLB NÖ-Wien. He also said that both RLB NÖ-Wien and Bitpanda are committed to making crypto trading available as soon as possible, adding:

“Thanks to the way we have built Bitpanda Technology Solutions we are able to integrate our infrastructure quickly and safely, and plan to make trading available by the end of the year.”

Enzersdorfer-Konrad also noted that RLB NÖ-Wien’s upcoming new offering will feature the full range of Bitpanda’s digital asset offering, which includes over 2,500 assets, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).

RLB NÖ-Wien is a part of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bankengruppe grouping of independent cooperative banks, owning a 22.6% stake in Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI).

As previously reported, RBI has been experimenting with digital currency development. In 2020, the global Raiffeisen bank was building a platform for the national currency tokenization using blockchain technology. The bank is also known for participating in trade finance pilots involving R3’s Marco Polo blockchain network.

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Austrian Crypto Exchange Bitpanda Secures Trading License From Germany’s BaFin

November 23, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Bitpanda secures crypto licence in Germany, claims to be the first “European retail” crypto investment platform to do so

November 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitpanda

The other licensees included three European institutional investment platforms and one U.S.-based retail platform.

In an official blog post, Bitpanda announced that it has secured a crypto custody licence from the German financial authority, BaFin.

Having obtained this licence, the Austrian-based crypto exchange can now legally market its services to residents of Germany. Bitpanda also claimed to be the first retail crypto exchange based out of Europe to have achieved this distinction.

The collapse of the FTX crypto exchange has brought increased scrutiny to unregulated crypto exchanges that operate outside of a country’s jurisdiction. For this reason, many exchanges are seeking to gain licences in multiple countries to prove that they are legitimate. This latest licence adds to the list of countries Bitpanda is officially regulated in, including Austria, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, and France.

Previously, the license has been obtained by four other crypto-related firms: Coinbase, Kapilendo, Tangany, and Upvest. The latter three cater to institutional investors. While U.S.-based Coinbase is a retail investment platform. Bitpanda claims to be the first “European” retail crypto platform to get the licence because it is based in Austria.

Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth told Cointelegraph that this licence “was the result of many months of hard work by the entire Bitpanda team.” He stated that the company can now prove that it is an honest and trustworthy custodian of crypto assets for German customers:

“We can and will prove that we mean business when it comes to Bitpanda making customer safety our top priority. […] Acquiring licenses may be difficult in itself, but we are absolutely committed to continuing on this path - because it is the only right thing to do.”

The issue of how to licence and regulate crypto exchanges has been a hot topic since the collapse of FTX. The Bank of England Deputy Governor, Jon Cunliffe, has revealed that the BoE intends to create a “regulatory sandbox” to explore ways to regulate exchanges effectively, and the U.S. Senate has launched a hearing to consider how to effectively regulate crypto exchanges.

Bitpanda's Eric Demuth originally provided comments in German to Cointelegraph’s Veronika Rinecker, whic were previously published in a German-language article discussing this topic.

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Bitpanda

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