UnionBank said that the new feature will be gradually rolled by the last quarter of 2023.
UNIONBANK – The Union Bank of the Philippines is set to offer Bitcoin Trading on its mobile app in October 2023.
The bank said on Tuesday that it has received a Certificate of Authority from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to operate as a virtual asset service provider (VASP). According to the bank, this makes it the first and only universal bank in the country that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies on its mobile app.
It also said that some users of its app will be allowed to directly buy and sell Bitcoin starting in October and the new feature will be gradually rolled on the mobile app by the “last quarter of 2023”.
UnionBank also said that its customers now have a secure and convenient platform for trading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin through a well-established and trusted financial institution.
In a statement, the bank said this will allow them to manage both traditional banking and digital assets within a single mobile platform. It added that the virtual asset exchange services were previously accessible only to “randomly selected” users of the mobile app through a limited virtual asset license.
“By obtaining this license, we are not only paving the way for even more groundbreaking opportunities, but also enhancing our digital capabilities and further transforming the way our customers interact with us,” UnionBank President and CEO Edwin Bautista said.
According to UnionBank SVP and Head of Emerging Technology Group Cathy Casas, they pursued the virtual asset license in order to future-proof their business.
It was last January 2018 when the bank announced that it would offer the country’s first blockchain payment system for businesses called “Visa B2B Connect”. Later that same year, the bank said it would tap blockchain in order to connect rural banks in the same way systems such as Bancnet and SWIFT link larger lenders.
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