Standard Chartered announces crypto broker service in Ireland

Standard Chartered’s crypto brokerage arm Zodia Custody announced plans to offer its services to institutional investors in Ireland.

Recently in July, Standard Chartered along with Northern Trust received regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority for Zodia Custoday, a digital asset joint venture operation. It was formed to offer commercial services to clients as a crypto asset business.

As the joint venture extends its reach to different parts of Europe, Zodia was one of nine crypto businesses granted the FCA registration under the UK’s Money Laundering Regulation and as per the records, Zodia’s registration is effective since 15th July.

As reported earlier, the FCA had pushed to bring crypto businesses under its umbrella, and to do the same, it was developing a register of firms that received its approval. FCA announced this in 2020 and only a few managed to receive its approval, while many had to shut shop.

Standard Chartered was also working to develop an institutional crypto brokerage exchange service along with BC Group, which was the parent company of the Hong Kong-regulated crypto exchange OSL. Given the progress and products offered by SC Ventures over the past months, Alex Manson, global head of transaction banking, had earlier noted,

“We believe cryptoassets as an asset class is here to stay. We set up Zodia Custody with the clear goal of serving institutional investors who want to invest in cryptoassets in a sustainable, safe and responsible way. Our aspiration is to lift standards, grow the ecosystem and help a nascent industry mature, becoming more acceptable to institutional investors and ultimately society at large.”