On Wednesday (May 4), Liechtenstein’s LGT Bank, which is part of LGT Group, “the largest family-owned private banking and asset management group in the world”, announced that it “now offering direct investments in cryptocurrencies.”
LGT, which was formerly known as The Liechtenstein Global Trust, is” owned by the princely House of Liechtenstein through the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation and led by its family members H.S.H. Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein (CEO) and H.S.H. Prince Philipp von und zu Liechtenstein (chairman).”
Liechtenstein, which is more officially known as the Principality of Liechtenstein, is “a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland.” It is “a constitutional monarchy headed by the Prince of Liechtenstein”, and it is “bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and Austria to the east and north.” It is also “Europe’s fourth-smallest country, with an area of just over 160 square kilometres (62 square miles) and a population of 38,749 (in 2019).” Liechtenstein is “a member of the United Nations, the European Free Trade Association, and the Council of Europe.”
According to the press release issued by LGT Bank has entered a partnership with Switzerland-based SEBA Bank, which will “act as broker and custodian, to provide this service.” The two cryptoassets that clients of LGT Bank are allowed to invest in are Bitcoin ($BTC) and Ether ($ETH).
Roland Matt, CEO of LGT Bank, had this to say:
“We are very pleased that we can now offer our clients convenient access to these markets while upholding the highest security standards. We worked intensively on this offering. Cryptocurrencies are still in a stage of dynamic development. LGT therefore first created the corresponding, necessary processes and framework for this type of investment.“
And Franz Bergmuller, CEO of SEBA Bank, stated:
“As a licensed and FINMA-regulated Swiss bank with a core competence in cryptocurrencies and digital assets, we enable banks and their clients to handle traditional and digital assets securely. We have the expertise, established processes and, above all, a custody solution that is ISAE-certified and established by independent bodies. The range of services combined with the highest security standards makes SEBA Bank’s service offering unique, and we are very pleased to be able to use our expertise to support LGT in expanding its services for digital assets.“
The press release went on to say that “the new offering is currently available to selected client segments of LGT Bank, Liechtenstein.” These clients must be “domiciled in Liechtenstein or Switzerland and be classified as professional clients or be the client of an external asset manager.” It did, however, also mention that “due to the demand in other areas and regions, the private bank is already working on expanding the offering and making it more widely available.”
Mathias Schutz, SEBA’s head of client and tech solutions, told CoinDesk that “the bank is in discussions to add more coins as well as staking and yield earning possibilities.”
He also said:
“LGT is also seeing demand from relationship managers to expand the offering to Singapore and other locations… For instance, they have a representative office in the UAE, in Dubai. So they also want to bring those locations into the play.“
Featured Image by “osmanzoellner” via Pixabay.com
