Aussie banks ANZ and NAB won’t 'endorse' retail speculation on crypto

cointelegraph.com:

Executives at two of Australia’s “big four” banks have ruled out allowing retail customers to trade cryptocurrency on their platforms, with one reasoning that customers don’t understand “basic financial well-being.”

Speaking at the Australian Financial Review Banking Summit on May 31 Maile Carnegie, executive for retail banking at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) said that from speaking to retail customers she believed “the vast majority of them don’t understand really basic financial well-being concepts.”

Carnegie said ANZ had considered a cryptocurrency product from as early as 2017 adding she was “happy we didn’t go head long” into the offering.

Also attending the summit was chief digital officer for National Australia Bank (NAB) Angela Mentis who was asked if NAB would consider offering crypto trading. She answered “not in the foreseeable future and not for retail” but added there are already applications for blockchain technology for institutional clients.

In March ANZ became the first bank in Australia to mint an Australia dollar (AUD) pegged stablecoin called A$DC and NAB is also gearing up to launch its own stablecoin which is expected to be operational by the end of 2022.

Both stablecoin projects from the big banks will initially be offered for institutional clients seeking an on-ramp for crypto investments, the pilot transaction of A$DC for exampl was a $30 million AUD transfer.

The only big four bank with plans to launch a retail crypto trading product is the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). At the summit its CEO Matt Comyn said despite facing challenges it was still its “intent” to launch the service.

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