Today major Swiss private bank Julius Baer announced a collaboration with startup SEBA Crypto which plans to be a licensed crypto bank. Julius Baer says that it’s experiencing increasing client demand for digital assets and hence will provide its clients with access to SEBA’s services. The arrangement is subject to SEBA receiving a FINMA banking and securities dealer license. The platform plans to launch in the second quarter of this year.
Last year Julius Baer made a minority investment in SEBA. The September funding round secured 100 million Swiss Francs ($100 million), though technically only 16.5 million Swiss Franc has been invested to date, according to the corporate registry. The company roadmap outlines plans for an ICO in the third quarter.
“At Julius Baer, we are convinced that digital assets will become a legitimate sustainable asset class of an investor’s portfolio,” said Peter Gerlach, Head Markets at Julius Baer. “The investment into SEBA as well as our strong partnership are proof of Julius Baer’s engagement in the area of digital assets and our dedication to make pioneering innovation available to the benefit of our clients.”
SEBA intends to provide a full range of banking services including crypto-related custody, trading and liquidity, transaction banking for companies funded by crypto, crypto asset and wealth management and crypto corporate finance.
Several of the SEBA team have more than a decade of experience at major Swiss banks UBS or Credit Suisse. The SEBA chairman Andreas Amschwand spent 25 years at UBS and currently sits on the board of Julius Baer.
