HSBC's CEO Says Bank Has No Plans To Promote Bitcoin

HSBC’s CEO Noel Quinn has stated that the bank has no plans to offer cryptocurrency services to their clients. In an interview with Reuters the CEO revealed that while their customers may choose to participate in cryptocurrency related activities, the bank’s stance is that they are too volatile and lack transparency.

After ten days of trials and tribulations for the crypto community, in which Bitcoin fell by 50% and China announced a further ban on crypto mining, HSBC has chimed in to say that they cannot promote cryptocurrency as an asset class.

Noel Quinn commented on the bank’s perspective:

"Given the volatility we are not into Bitcoin as an asset class, if our clients want to be there then of course they are, but we are not promoting it as an asset class within our wealth management business. "I view Bitcoin as more of an asset class than a payments vehicle, with very difficult questions about how to value it on the balance sheet of clients because it is so volatile.Then you get to stablecoins which do have some reserve backing behind them to address the stored value concerns, but it depends on who the sponsoring organization is plus the structure and accessibility of the reserve."

Quinn added that he is “much more interested in CBDCs”. 

"CBDCs can facilitate international transactions in e-wallets more simply, they take out friction costs and they are likely to operate in a transparent manner and have strong attributes of stored value"

The European banking giant has joined a number of global banks that have started to go forward with plans for CBDCs. China's national bank leads the crowd in terms of rolling out a number of CBDC trials, with their digital yuan expected to roll out over the next year.

Meanwhile, U.K bank Natwest has recently sent its customers notices to their online banking, warning them against cryptocurrency scams. The warning message is titled “Thinking about investing in Bitcoin or other Cryptocurrencies?” and lists a number of points to look out for before investing. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.