South Korea’s largest bank to become a crypto custodian

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Written on Mar 27, 2020

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South Korea's largest bank has recently filed a patent for a crypto custody service.
The patent was filed in January of this year, but it was only revealed earlier today, as reported by a local news source.
If the bank receives necessary approvals, it will start offering services such as asset trading, investment, and more.

Despite the recent crypto price crash, it appears that businesses and institutions around the world are still interested in the crypto sector. Recently, KB Kookmin Bank — the largest bank in South Korea — filed a trademark application for becoming a crypto custodian.

More accurately, the bank seems to be launching a new crypto custody service, known as KB Digital Asset Custody. The trademark application was filed in January 2020. It says that the custodian will offer various services.

Some of the mentioned ones include digital asset trading, consultation, advisory, as well as investment. This will be possible for some of the most popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The move was only unveiled earlier today, by a local media source, Digital Today. The bank filed a patent with the Korean Intellectual Property Office. Another part of the service will also include managing stocks, currency conversion, and institutional trading.

The exact date when the service might see launch is still unknown. But, the report stated that the development process is near completion. This is not surprising, as filing a patent often means that the development is in the final stages. This is when the branding process is ready to commence.

The move could bring big changes to Korean financial sector

Of course, this could still mean that the process could last anywhere from 6 to 24 months. In addition, the bank will also have to gain the regulators’ approval. It is possible that the bank has already gained the approval, or that the process is on-going, but such information is currently not available.

Even so, the new move could be extremely significant for the crypto sector. Not only that, but it could impact the entire country’s financial industry, as the report claims. It is possible that other banks in the region might follow KB Kookmin Bank’s lead. They might start working on launching their own custodian subsidiaries soon.

The bank has shown interest in the blockchain sector before, as it partnered up with a blockchain firm, Atomic Labs, in June 2019. Back then, its CEO, Lee Woo-yeol, commented by saying: “We hope that the two companies will grow together through discovering innovative services in the digital asset management field through this agreement. We will expand the creation of the digital ecosystem through cooperation.”

The newly announced move certainly indicates that the bank followed through with this promise. As such, it is one step closer to becoming a crypto business, at least in part.