DBS Bank, Singapore’s largest bank with more than 4 million customers, is working to expand its cryptocurrency exchange.
Singapore’s DBS Bank had already implemented Bitcoin trading for its institutional clients, now it will expand it to small clients.
DBS Bank CEO Piyush Gupta spoke about the bank’s cryptocurrency business during its Q4 2021 earnings call today, and stated that the company will focus on measures to further scale its cryptocurrency exchange by 2022 , Cointelegraph reported.
During the call, Gupta was asked if DBS Bank has a roadmap for implementing digital asset trading for retail investors. While the CEO did not have a direct answer, he said DBS Bank initiated some work to expand its existing investor base, stating:
“We started doing the work to see how we get in a sensible way, get it out and expand it beyond the current investor base. And that includes making sure we think appropriately about things like potential fraud and so on.”
Says Cointelegraph that the CEO hinted that DBS Bank would not be able to support retailers for its crypto exchange before completing that work, expecting to finalize related developments by the end of 2022.
Boosting crypto platform
In addition, Gupta reported that DBS Bank also expects to significantly boost its crypto trading platform in the first half or first three quarters of this year.
The bank specifically plans to “make accessing digital assets much more convenient” by enabling instant online deposits and transactions without relying heavily on banking intermediaries, the CEO said:
“What happens is you have 24/7 operations, but customers need to call and talk to bankers. So, the first order of business is to make it all online, make it self-service, make it instantaneous and make sure the internal processes are robust to be able to support that.”
The news comes a month after Singapore authorities placed restrictions on crypto promotion and advertising in the country.
In December 2020, the DBS launched its cryptocurrency exchange, but only for institutions.
