DBS Bank wins in-principle approval in Singapore to offer cryptocurrency services

The brokerage arm of DBS Bank, the largest bank in Singapore, has received in-principle approval from the financial regulator to provide cryptocurrency services to asset managers and companies.

According to the press release, DBS Vickers (DBSV) became one of the first financial institutions to obtain such permission from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The division aims to obtain a MAS licence, after which it will be able to directly support client trading on the DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx).

DBS noted that since the DDEx launch it has invited about 400 corporate investors. In Q2 2021, trading volume on the platform exceeded SGD 180 million (~$132 million) and was five times higher than in the previous period.

The bank’s custodial service stores digital assets worth SGD 130 million (~$96 million).

“We have made steady progress in our digital assets ecosystem in six months since the DDEx launch last year, and this is reflected in our trading and custody services. We are seeing strong interest from asset managers and corporates in accessing digital payment token services,” said Eng-Kwok Seeat Moy, head of the DBS Group Markets.

The bank is also increasing its pipeline of potential offerings security tokens.

Earlier, the first offering of such assets (STO) for SGD 15 million ($11.3 million) took place on the DDEx platform in June.