Piyush Gupta – CEO of Singapore’s leading bank DBS Bank – revealed his institution will not extend its crypto trading services to retail customers in “the immediate future.” The announcement contradicts the company’s initial intentions to provide such opportunities.
Change of plan
In February this year, Singaporean multinational banking and financial services company – DBS Bank – announced that it would expand crypto trading opportunities to its retail clients by the end of 2022.
Specifically, the bank aimed to make the process accessible by facilitating instant online deposits and transactions without depending on intermediaries.
Nevertheless, in a recent interview, the chief executive – Piyush Gupta – said that local watchdogs are “rightly concerned” about allowing digital asset services in the retail sector. As such, the bank withdrew its initial plans:
“But I’m not holding my breath. I don’t think the environment will allow us to make it available to retail anytime in the immediate future.”
Either way, Gupta remained optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies, predicting that “sooner or later” they will become a lifeblood of the financial network:
“Left to ourselves, as I have said before, I think over time, digital currencies and crypto assets are going to be pervasive. And therefore, sooner or later, I think the world will have to come to terms with this as an asset class.”
Gupta sees crypto as a replacement for gold
The top executive displayed his positivity towards crypto a few weeks ago, describing the asset class as an alternative to gold and its role in the current monetary system.
On the other hand, Gupta maintained that, as of the moment, the volatility of the crypto market does not allow digital assets to become “money as we know it:”
“The other big challenge is the volatility of value. If you want to use it to pay for something, you don’t know what it’s costing you. Today, cryptos are a potential source of speculative value, it’s unlikely to be a source of money as we know it.
In line with many other experts, DBS’s CEO called upon global regulation of the sector. In his view, central banks should be responsible for designing the regulatory framework.
Additionally, Gupta highlighted the benefits of backbone crypto-blockchain technology. “It can change the way trade finance is handled, it can change how payments and settlements work, it can change how trade works,” he said.
