Spanish bank BBVA has partnered with Singapore’s SGX FX to allow retail customers to trade digital assets directly through its platforms.
The integration, marking a first for the European market, the companies said on Thursday, will initially support bitcoin and ether, offering 24/7 trading with the same framework BBVA uses for foreign exchange.
SGX has been a digital assets and blockchain tech enthusiast for several years, while BBVA has also been at the forefront among banks when it comes to crypto.
SGX FX provides banks with aggregation, pricing, distribution and risk-management tools while maintaining operations across key global data centers in London, New York, Tokyo and Singapore.
“SGX FX has built its reputation over 25 years by delivering a platform hardened by decades of live trading for the global FX markets. By tightly integrating digital assets into our existing FX offering, we enable banks like BBVA to move quickly, launch seamlessly, and serve growing client demand – all without the need for a full stack replacement,” said Vinay Trivedi, COO, SGX FX Sell-side Solutions.
The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation has opened the path for highly regulated firms to offer crypto services and by working with SGX FX, BBVA positions itself to comply with these requirements while meeting rising client demand.
“Digital assets are rapidly becoming an integral part of the global finance system. It’s natural that our customers want to be able to trade these assets using the same trusted system,” said Luis Martins, Global Head of Macro Trading at BBVA.