UnionBank of the Philippines Picks IBM and Metaco for Crypto Custody

Crypto-friendly UnionBank of the Philippines volition beryllium utilizing cryptocurrency safekeeping exertion from IBM and Swiss custody specializer Metaco, the companies said Thursday.

Metaco has been providing the back-end crypto custody capabilities successful Switzerland for banks similar BBVA and GazpromBank since arsenic acold backmost arsenic 2018. Since galore of the world’s banks are already clients of IBM, the concern with Metaco, announced successful March of past year, makes for an adjacent much compelling package, said Seamus Donoghue, Metaco’s VP of concern development.

“Think of each the tier-one banks successful the market, they’re astir apt each IBM clients, galore of them strategical clients,” said Donoghue successful an interview. “They tin leverage the existing stack, existing tally capabilities to negociate Metaco vaults straight from existing infrastructure. And we person a fig of different akin deals successful the pipeline, leveraging our combined capabilities.”

IBM has traditionally been a stalwart of endeavor blockchain: backstage ledgers moving wrong the firewalls of companies progressive successful proviso chains and the like. But Big Blue has present begun applying its cardinal absorption know-how to nationalist crypto.

UnionBank, which has implicit $15 cardinal successful assets nether management, has been a tireless explorer of cryptocurrency initiatives including doing blockchain payments with Visa, remittances successful concern with Ethereum developer ConsenSys and adjacent launching a stablecoin.

“We person the passionateness for meaningful and sustainable reinvention. We worth our strategical partners, similar Metaco, and collaborate with them successful an confederation that is meaningful successful pursuit of a communal vision,” UnionBank Senior Executive Vice President Henry Aguda said successful a statement.