Coinbase Receives Approval from FCA, Opens Account at Barclays Bank

Coinbase of San Francisco has opened an account at Barclay's Bank of London, according to the Financial Times.

This is noteworthy because it is the first time that a digital Exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term has opened a bank account with a major British bank. Moreover, the sheer size of the two entities means that the move is likely to be a significant one for the industry.

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Barclays Bank, market capitalisation 35.52 billion USD, has more than 1400 branches and 40,000 employees in the UK. It is breaking ranks somewhat with this move; Lloyds does not accept credit card transactions used to purchase cryptocurrency, and the Royal Bank of Scotland stopped business with Gibraltar International Bank shortly after ICOs were legalised in the latter's home base, to give just two recent examples of the British banking establishment/cryptocurrency relationship.

Coinbase owns the exchange GDAX, which processes almost 270 billion USD in cryptocurrency trading according to coinmarketcap.com, making it the 7th most-used in the world. On its website it claims to have more than 10 million users.

Previously, British customers of Coinbase had to go through an Estonian bank, LHV. The partnership between the Coinbase and LHV dates back to 2014. The withdrawal/deposit process for UK residents had been fairly convoluted, involving conversion to euro and a SEPA transfer, and could take up to three days. The exchange decided to open an account at Barclays to make the process more simple for its UK customers. It did this because the EU is the fastest-growing market among those that the exchange serves, and the UK has the exchange's biggest customer base within that market, according to TechCrunch. It is currently actively hiring staff for its UK offices.

In tandem with its new bank account, Coinbase announced two other developments. First, it has received an e-money licence from the FCA, which allows it to operate in the UK and 23 other countries of the EU.

Second, it has added support for the Faster Payments Payments One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl Read this Term Service, which is (as the name suggests) an initiative to develop technology to speed up payment processing. It is supported by most major banks in the UK, including Santander UK, Barclays, Citi, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Coinbase will be the first cryptocurrency exchange to participate in the intitiative.