Bermuda allows local fintechs to play in US
New York-based Signature Bank is providing a full range of banking services to Bermuda-licensed fintech companies.
Bermuda sounds like a great place to move and work!
This launch comes as a result of the Bermudian effort to up the country’s regulation when it comes to fintech.
David Burt, Premier of Bermuda and MP of the Progressive Labour Party, says that the Bermudian government has been working to promote Bermuda as “the destination of choice” for fintech companies.
“Signature Bank’s willingness to consider Bermuda licensed businesses for banking services is a significant vote of confidence in and endorsement of Bermuda’s efforts to create a leading high standard regulatory regime for fintech business,” Burt adds.
Signature Bank is an early entrant into the digital asset space, and aims to support “highly regulated players in the fintech and digital assets industry”.
The bank is the first to launch a New York regulator-approved blockchain-based platform for managing money transfers between clients. JP Morgan announced a similar initiative, called the JPM Coin.
Joseph J. DePaolo, president and CEO at Signature Bank, explains: “Since launching at the start of the year, our blockchain based Signet system has onboarded multiple clients who are using it to send each other millions of dollars. Signature Bank is one of the few banks in the US that will provide deposit accounts and corporate debit cards to cryptocurrency start-ups but we are seeing non-crypto businesses signing up as well.”
Bermuda launched legislation in 2018 aimed at this. Burt says Bermuda now hosts 66 fintech companies.
However, the absence of banking services for fintech companies has been an impediment to those companies who are looking to establish a physical presence in Bermuda.
