The reason why Swiss private bank Maerki Baumann has chosen to embrace blockchain and cryptocurrencies is because it wants to revitalize the business and become more competitive.
In an interview with the Swiss site Swiss Info, the bank’s CEO Stephen Zwahlen reveals that they have already experienced a change in customer influx.
“In our traditional business, we usually have to run after each client. It’s hard work and rather rare for clients to just knock on our door”, he says and continues:
“We suddenly had 400 people wanting to talk with us. And they were exactly the kind people we had been struggling to access for ten years with traditional private banking offerings”.
According to Stephen Zwahlen, these are people who are between 30 and 40 years old and who are highly educated and have an entrepreneurial mindset.
A sensitive issue
Although Även om Hypothekarbank Lenzburg in the summer of 2018 became the first bank in the country to offer corporate accounts to crypto companies, this is still a sensitive issue, according to Stephen Zwahlen.
Initially, Maerki Baumann will focus on providing business accounts to startups who want to launch STO’s (security token offerings).
A little later, the idea is also for the bank to enter into partnerships that enable them to offer both storage and trading of cryptocurrencies.
The plan is also to offer advice and management for private banking customers who want to invest in crypto assets, Swiss Info writes.
