One of the top banking institutions in the world, HSBC, has confirmed that they are not planning to launch crypto products or services related to cryptocurrencies, reports Reuters. Earlier, reports emerged that HSBC is mulling plans to launch crypto-specific financial products eyeing the massive crypto trading market.
However, the bank’s CEO Noel Quinn has said that they do not consider Bitcoin as a viable asset class citing the extreme volatility. He clearly said that their bank will not be promoting Bitcoins as an asset class in their “wealth management business”.
On the other hand, as HSBC backtracks on its plans, other popular mainstream financial institutions such as the Development Bank of Singapore and Investment management and analytics firm, JP Morgan, amongst others have been actively endorsing Bitcoins and have been developing crypto-centric projects.
In a statement to the global news agency Reuters, Quinn also said that he sees “Bitcoin as more of an asset class than a payments vehicle.” He further added that the nature of Bitcoins makes it extremely difficult to appropriate “how to value it on the balance sheet of clients because it is so volatile.”
While denying any plans to get into the crypto market, the HSBC chief did not shy away from endorsing the idea of endorsing CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies.) Mr Quinn in his interview was all in for a centralised digital token pegged to a Fiat currency.
