US-based Signature Bank to Offer Services to Crypto firms in Bermuda

Signature Bank, a commercial bank based in New York, would provide full banking services to licensed Fintech and crypto-related firms in Bermuda, according to a press release shared with Coinfomania on Thursday night.

In line with the announcement, the fintech sector in Bermuda has lacked banking services, and this has acted as a blockage for startups looking to “establish a physical presence” in the Island nation.

As Coinfomania reported earlier this year, although Bermuda is a friendly ecosystem for crypto-related companies and has provided robust regulations in the past to support a comfortable establishment of such firms in the country, access to banking services remains a major constraint.

Despite efforts of the government of Bermuda to amend the Banking Act in the country in order to allow banks to provide services to crypto and blockchain startup, local banks refused to comply with the directive.

With the latest development, however, Signature Bank will soon remove the banking impediment by offering its services to fintech and crypto startups as well as 66 already existing companies in Bermuda.

David Burk, Premier of Bermuda, who promised to do everything possible to ensure that the banking problem is fixed, expressed his optimism in the press release that,

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,

The US Bank did not fail to show how pleased they are about the development as John Tamberlane, Vice Chairman at Signature Bank rightly noted that they are indeed overwhelmed about the regulatory framework of Bermuda.

We are impressed with the progress Bermuda has made to date on a regulatory front, and look forward to working with the Government of Bermuda to help promote growth and expansion of the FinTech and digital asset industry in that country, Tamberlane stated. 

Signature Bank is one of the few banks in the U.S. like J.P Morgan with an approved blockchain-based platform for managing the transfers of funds between clients.

This post has been updated to correct the quote attributed to Mr. John Tamberlane of Signature Bank.