ClearBank, an enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, today announced a new regional partnership with Kraken, one of the world’s longest-standing, most liquid and most secure digital asset platforms. The extended partnership sees ClearBank provide Kraken’s UK based clients with GBP clearing services enabling seamless on and off ramps into the digital exchange ecosystem. 

Building and maintaining reliable, instant fiat payments rails has been a consistent challenge that has held back digital asset adoption. ClearBank solves this challenge through its direct membership of the Faster Payments Service (FPS) and its virtual International Bank Account Numbers (vIBANs) offering. As such, ClearBank will provide Kraken’s retail and institutional clients seamless on and off ramping, as well as the additional security due to its deposits being held at the Bank of England.        

With the recent granting of a UK Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence to Kraken’s legal entity, Payward Services Ltd, ClearBank becomes the digital assets platform's primary UK bank, and will be supporting them as they scale up their UK license. ClearBank is already supporting Crypto Facilities Limited, an FCA regulated investment firm also part of the Kraken Group, with client money accounts.  

Together, both companies are striving to launch regional clearing services in early 2025. They are also exploring additional opportunities to scale the partnership, enabling Kraken to offer new and exciting products and services to its clients.

Later this year the partnership will expand further with Kraken’s European EMI entity Payward Ireland Limited set to onboard to ClearBank making it Kraken’s primary clearing bank in the EU region, granting clients access to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and opening up GBP and EUR clearing services to both UK and EU-based clients.

John Salter, Chief Customer Officer, ClearBank, said: “The partnership with Kraken is a demonstration of our ability to provide account and payments services across both the UK and Europe. We now work with some of the largest companies and exchanges in the market and with Kraken, we are pleased to further grow our presence in the rapidly expanding world of digital assets. Both ClearBank and Kraken are culturally aligned and have similar ambitious long-term growth plans and we look forward to working with them to provide a range of new products and services to further delight their customers.”

Kaushik Sthankiya, Global Head, Banking & Payments, Kraken, said: “To unleash the potential of cryptocurrency and drive mainstream adoption, the underlying banking infrastructure must be robust. This is why we have partnered with ClearBank, whose battle-tested, cloud-based API technology and commitment to innovation matches Kraken’s vision of growing crypto adoption and financial freedom. Together, we will deliver a seamless, scalable, and secure platform for all our clients to not only access and transact but also thrive within the crypto economy.”